LIBRARY OF COfJGRESS, 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




TEPS INTO THE 
BLESSED LIFE ^ 



ADDRESSES "BY Jf Jt ^ ^ ^ ^ Ji 

REV. F. B.^YER, B.A. 






Philadclpliia ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

HEINTRY ALTEMUS 



\X 



>^~..K. 



*^';> 



The Library 
oif Congress 



Copyrighted, 1896, by Henry Altemus. 



HENRY ALTEMUS, MANUFACTURER, 
PHILADELPHIA. 



CONTENTS 



The First Step into the Blessed Life 7 

The Secret of Guidance 23 

The Chambers of the King 39 

In the Secret of His Presence 55 

The Secret of Christ's Indwelling 71 

With Christ in Separation , . . 87 

The Filling of the Holy Spirit 103 

The Secret of Power 119 

The Lost Chord Found 131 

The Secret of Victory Over Sin 145 

How to Bear Sorrow 161 

Peace, Perfect Peace 177 

Seven Eules for Daily Living 193 

Seven Reasons for Believers' Baptism 205 

The Stewardship of Money 221 



CONTENTS, 

Don't Drift . 237 

Why Sign the Pledge ? 253 

Where Am I Wrong ? 269 

Our Bible Keading 285 

A Keswick Experience 301 



The First Step 



INTO THE 



Blessed Life 



THE FIRST STEP INTO THE 
BLESSED LIFE. 

THEEE is a Christian life, which, in 
comparison with that experienced 
by the majority of Christians, is as 
summer to winter, or, as the mature fruit- 
fulness of a golden autumn to the strug- 
gling promise of a cold and late spring. It 
is such a life as Caleb might have lived in 
Hebron, the city of Fellowship ; or the 
Apostle John was living, when he wrote 
his epistles. It may be fitly termed the 
Blessed Life. 

And the Blessedness of the Blessed Life 
lies in this : that we trust the Lord to do 
in us and for us what we could not do ; 
and we find that He does not belie His 
word, but that, according to our faith, so 
it is done to us. The weary spirit, which 
has vainly sought to realize its ideal by its 
own strivings and efforts, now gives itself 
over to the strong and tender hands of the 
Lord Jesus ; and He accepts the task ; and 
at once begins to work in it to will and to 

9 



10 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

do of His own good pleasure, delivering it 
from the tyranny of besetting sin, and ful- 
filling in it His own perfect ideal. 

This Blessed Life should be the normal 
life of every Christian ; in work and rest ; 
in the building-up of the inner life, and in 
the working-out of the life-plan. It is 
God's thought not for a few, but for all 
His children. The youngest and weakest 
may lay claim to it, equally with the 
strongest and oldest. We should step into 
it at the moment of conversion ; without 
wandering with blistered feet, for forty 
years in the desert ; or lying, for thirty- 
eight years, with disappointed hopes, in 
the porch of the House of Mercy. 

But since many have long ago passed the 
moment of conversion, without entering 
the Blessed Life, it may be well to show 
clearly, what the first step must be, to take 
us within its golden circle. Better take it 
late than never. 

The first step into the Blessed Life is 
contained in the one word, 

^^ Consecration ; " 

And is enforced by the significant exhor- 
tation of the Apostle (Eom. vi. 13). 

It is not enough to give our time, or 
energy, or money. Many will gladly 
give anything, rather than themselves. But 



THE FIRST STEP, 11 

none of these will be accounted as a suf- 
ficient substitute by Him, who gave, not 
only His possessions, but His very Self for 
us. As the Lord Jesus was all for us. He 
asks that we should be all for Him. Body, 
soul, and spirit ; one reasonable service 
and gift. 

That Consecration is the stepping-stone to 
Blessedness, is clearly established in the experi- 
ence of God^s children. For instance, Frances 
Ridley Havergal has left us this record : 
'^It was on Advent Sunday, December, 
1873, that I first saw clearly the blessed- 
ness of true consecration. I saw it as a 
flash of electric light, and what you see 
you can never unsee. There must be full sur- 
render before there can be fidl Blessedness. God 
admits you by the one into the other. First I 
was shown that the body of Jesus Christ, 
His Son, cleanseth from all sin ; and then 
it was made plain to me that He who had 
thus cleansed me, had power to keep me 
clean ; so I utterly yielded myself to Him and 
utterly trusted Him to keep me. ' ' 

The seraphic Whitfield, the brothers 
Wesley, the great Welsh preacher Christ- 
mas Evans, the French pastor Oberlin, and 
many more have given the same testimony. 
And in their mouths surely this truth may 
be regarded as established, that we must 
pass through Gilgal to the Land of Eest ; 



12 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

and that the strait gate of Consecration 
alone leads into the Blessed Life. 

1. — The ground of Consecration is in the great 
Scripture statement that we are Chrisfs. There 
is a two-fold ground of proprietorship. We 
are His by Purchase, " Ye are not your 
own, for ye are bought with a price. '^ Step 
into that slave-market, where men and 
women are waiting like chattels to be 
bought. Yonder comes a wealthy planter, 
who, after due examination, lays down his 
money for a number of men and women to 
stock his estate. From that moment, 
those persons are absolutely his property, 
as much so as his cattle or his sheep. All 
they possess, all they may earn, is abso- 
lutely his. So, the Apostles reasoned, 
they were Christ's ; and often they began 
their epistles by calling themselves, *^ the 
slaves of Jesus Christ." Paul went so 
far as to say that he bore in his body the 
brand-marks of Jesus. And are not all 
Christians Christ's, whether they own it 
and live up to it, or not ; because He pur- 
chased them by His most precious blood ? 
We are His also by Deed of Gift. The Father 
has given to the Son all who shall come to 
Him. If ever you have come, or shall 
come, to Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you 
show that you have been included in that 
wonderful donation (John vi. 37). And 



THE FIRST STEP. 13 

is it likely that the Father gave only a 
part of us ? Nay, as utterly as He gave 
His Son for us, so hath He given us to His 
Son. And our Lord Jesus thinks much of 
that solemn transaction, though we, alas ! 
often live as if it had never taken place, 
and were free to live as we pleased. 

2. — The Act of Consecration is to recognize 
Chris fs ownership ; and to accept it; and to say 
to Him with the whole heart, Lordj I am Thine 
by Eighty and I wish to be Thine by Choice. Of 
old the mighty men of Israel were willing 
to swim the rivers at their flood, to come 
to David, their un-crowned but God- 
appointed King. And when the}^ met him, 
they cried, '' Thine are we, David, and on 
thy side, thou son of Jesse." They were 
his because God had given them to him, 
but they could not rest content till they 
were his also by their glad choice. Why 
then should we not say the same to Jesas 
Christ ? '^ Lord Jesus, I am Thine by right; 
forgive me that I have lived so long as if I 
were my own ; and now I gladly recognize 
that Thou hast a rightful claim on all I have 
and am ; I want to live as Thine from 
henceforth ; and I do solemnly and at this 
hour give myself to Thee. Thine in life 
and death. Thine absolutely and for- 
ever." 

Do not try to make a covenant with God, 



14 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

lest you should break it, and be discour- 
aged. But quietly fall into your right at- 
titude as one who belongs to Christ. Take 
as your motto the noble confession, ^^ Whose 
I am and whom I serve.'' Breathe the 
grand old simple lines : — 

*' Just as I am, — Thy love unknown 
Has broken every barrier down ; 
Now to he TTiine, yea^ Thine alone, 
Lamb of God, I come.^^ 

3. — Consecration is not the act of our feelings, 
but of our will. Do not try to feel anything. 
Do not try to make yourself fit or good or 
earnest enough for Christ. God is work- 
ing in you to will, whether you feel it or 
not. He is giving you power, at this mo- 
ment, to will and do His good pleasure. 
Believe this, and act upon it at once ; and 
say, ^^Lord Jesus, I am willing to be 
Thine ; " or, if you cannot say as much as 
that, say, '' Lord Jesus, I am willing to be 
made willing to be Thine for evermore." 

Consecration is only possible, when we 
give up our will about everything. As soon 
as we come to the point of giving ourselves 
to God, we are almost certain to become 
aware of the presence of one thing, if not of 
more, out of harmony with His will. And 
whilst we feel able to surrender ourselves 
in all other points, here we exercise re- 
serve. Every room and cupboard in the 



THE FIRST STEP. 15 

house, with the exception of this, thrown 
open to the new occupant. Every limb in 
the body but one, submitted to the prac- 
ticed hand of the Good Physician. But 
that small reserve spoils the whole. To 
give ninety-nine parts and to withhold the 
hundredth undoes the whole transaction. 
Jesus will have all or none. And He is 
wise. Who would live in a fever-stricken 
house, so long as one room was not ex- 
posed to disinfectants, air, and sun? Who 
would undertake a case so long as the pa- 
tient refused to submit one part of his body 
to examination ? Who would become re- 
sponsible for a bankrupt so long as one 
ledger was kept back ? The reason that so 
many fail to attain the Blessed Life is that 
there is some one point in which they hold 
back from God ; and concerning which 
they prefer to have their own way and will 
rather than His. In this one thing they 
will not yield their will and accept God's ; 
and this one little thing mars the whole, 
robs them of peace, and compels them to 
wander in the desert. 

4. — Ij you cannot give all, ask the Lord 
Jesus to TAKE all, and especially that which 
seems so hard to give. Many have been 
helped by hearing it put thus. Tell them 
to give, and they shake their heads des- 
pondently. They are like the little child 



16 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

who told her mother that she had been 
trying to give Jesus her heart, hut it 
wouldnH go. But ask them if they are will- 
ing for Him to come into their hearts, and 
take all ; and they will joyfully assent. 

Tennyson says : — ^' Our wills are ours to 
make them Thine.'' But sometimes it 
seems impossible to shape them out so as 
to match every corner and angle of the 
Will of God. What a relief it is at such a 
moment to hand the will over to Christ ; 
telling Him that we are willing to be made 
willing to have His will in all things ; and 
asking Him to melt our stubborn wayward- 
ness, to fashion our wills upon His anvil, 
and to bring us into perfect accord with 
Himself. 

5. — When we are willing that the Lord 
Jesus should take all, we must believe that He 
does take all. He does not wait for us to 
free ourselves from evil habits ; or to make 
ourselves good ; or to feel glad and happy. 
His one desire is that we should put our 
will, on His side, in everything. When 
this is done He instantly enters the sur- 
rendered heart, and begins His blessed 
work of renovation and renewal. From 
the very moment of consecration, though 
it be done in much feebleness, and with 
slender appreciation of its entire meaning, 
the spirit may begin to say with new em- 



THE FIRST STEP. 17 

phasis, ^^I am His, I am His, Glory to 
God, I am His.^' Directly the gift is laid 
on the altar, the fire falls on it. 

Sometimes there is a rush of holy feel- 
ing. It was so with James Brained Tay- 
lor, who tells, ^^ I felt that I needed some- 
thing I did not possess. I desired it, not 
for my benefit only, but for that of the 
Church and the world. I lifted up my 
heart that the blessing might descend. At 
this juncture I was delightfully conscious 
of giving up all to God. I was enabled in 
my heart to say, ^' Here Lord^ take me, take 
my whole soul, and seal me Thine now, and 
Thine for ever. If Thou wilt Thou canst make 
me clean. Then there ensued such emotions 
as I never before experienced. All was 
calm and tranquil, and a heaven of love 
pervaded my soul. I had the witness of 
God's love to me, and of mine to Him. 
Shortly after I was dissolved in tears of 
love and gratitude to our blessed Lord,, 
who came as King, and took possession of 
my heart. ' ' 

It is very delightful when such emotions 
are given to us ; but we must not look for 
them, or depend on them. Our consecra- 
tion may be accepted, and may excite the 
liveliest joy in our Saviour's heart, though 
we are filled with no answering ecstasy. 
We may know that the great transaction 



18 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

is done, without any glad outburst of song. 
We may even have to exercise faith, 
against feeling, as we say, many scores of 
times each day, ^^I am His.'' But 
the absence of feeling proves nothing. 
And we must pillow our heads on the con- 
viction that Jesus took what we gave, at 
the moment of our giving it ; and that He 
will keep that which was committed to 
Him, against that day. 

6. — It is well to make the act of consecration a 
definite one in our spiritual history, George 
Whitfield did it in the ordination service. 
' ' I can call heaven and earth to witness 
that, when the Bishop laid his hand upon 
me, I gave myself up to be a martyr for 
Him who hung upon the cross for me. 
Known unto Him are all the future events 
and contingencies. I have thrown myself 
blindfolded, and without reserve, into His 
Almighty hands.'' 

Christmas Evans did it as he was climb- 
ing a lonely and mountainous road toward 
Cader Idris. ' ' I was weary of a cold heart 
toward Christ, and began to pray, and 
soon felt the fetters loosening, tears flowed 
copiously, and I was constrained to cry out 
for the gracious visits of God. Thus I re- 
signed myself to Christ, body and soul, 
gifts and labors, all my life, every day 
and every hour that remained to me ; and 
all my cares I committed to Christ." 



THE FIRST STEP. 19 

Stephen Grellet did it in the woods. 
^ ^ The woods are there of lofty and large 
pines, and my mind being inwardly re- 
tired before the Lord, He was pleased so 
to reveal His love to me through His 
blessed Son, my Saviour, that my fears 
were removed, my wounds healed, my 
mourning turned into joy ; and He 
strengthened me to offer up myself freely 
to him and to His service, for my whole 
life.'' 

It matters little when and how we do it ; 
whether by speech or in writing ; whether 
alone or in company ; but we must not be 
content with a general desire ; we must 
come to a definite act, at a given moment 
of time, when we shall gladly acknowledge 
and confess Christ's absolute ownership of 
all we are and have. 

7. — When the, aet of consecration is once 
truly done, it need not be repeated. We 
may review it with thankfulness. We 
may add some new codicils to it. We may 
learn how much more was involved in it 
than we ever dreamed. We may find new 
departments of our being, constantly de- 
manding to be included. But we cannot 
undo, and need never repeat it ; and if we 
fall away from it, let us go at once to our 
merciful High-Priest, confessing our sin, 
and seeking forgiveness and restoration. 



20 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

8. — The advantages resulting from this 
act cannot be enumerated here. They pass 
all count. The first and best is the special 
filling by the Holy Grhost ; and as He fills 
the heart, He drives before him the evil 
things which had held possession there too 
long ; just as mercury, poured into a glass 
of water, sinks to the bottom, expels the 
water, and takes its place. Directly we 
give ourselves to Christ, He seals us by 
His Spirit. Directly we present Him with 
a yielded nature. He begins to fill it with 
the Holy Ghost. Let us not try to feel 
that it is so. Let us believe that it is so ; 
and reckon on God's faithfulness. Others 
will soon see a marked difference in us, 
though we wist it not. 

9. — All that we have to do is to main- 
tain this attitude of full surrender, by the 
grace of the Holy Spirit. Remember that 
Jesus Christ offered Himself to God, through 
the Eternal Spirit ; and He waits to do as 
much for you. Ask Him to maintain you 
in this attitude, and to maintain this atti- 
tude in you. Use regularly the means of 
meditation, private prayer, and Bible 
study. Seek forgiveness for any failure, 
directly you are conscious of it ; and ask to 
be restored. Practice the holy habit of the 
constant recollection of God. Do not be 
eager to work for God, but let God work 



THE FIRST STEP. 21 

through you. Accept everything that 
happens to you as being permitted, and 
therefore sent by the will of Him who loves 
you infinitely. And there will roll in upon 
you wave on wave, tide on tide, ocean on 
ocean of an experience, fitly called the 
Blessed Life, because it is full of the Hap- 
piness of the ever-blessed God Himself. 

Dear reader, will you not take this step? 
There will be no further difficulty about 
money, dress, or amusements, or similar 
questions, which perplex some. Your 
heart will be filled and satisfied with the 
true riches. As the willing slave of Jesus 
Christ, you will only seek to do the will of 
your great and gentle Master. To spend 
every coin as He directs. To act as His 
steward. To dress so as to give Him 
pleasure. To spend the time only as He 
may approve. To do His will on earth, as 
it is in heaven. All this will come easy 
and delightful. 

You are perhaps far from this at present. 
But it is all within your reach. Do not be 
afraid of Christ. He wants to take noth- 
ing from you, except that which you would 
give up at once, if you could see, as clearly 
as He does, the harm it is inflicting. He 
will ask of you nothing inconsistent with 
the most perfect fitness and tenderness. 
He will give you grace enough to perform 



22 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE, 



every duty He may demand. ^^His yoke 
is easy ; His burden is light. ' ' 

Blessed Spirit of God, by whom alone 
human words can be made to speak to the 
heart, deign to use these, to point to many 
a longing soul the First Step into the 
Blessed Life, for the exceeding Glory of 
the Lord Jesus, and for the sake of a dying 
world. 



The Secret of Guidance 



THE SECRET OF GUIDANCE. 

MANY children of God are so deeply- 
exercised on the matter of guidance 
that it may be helpful to give a few 
suggestions as to knowing the way in 
which our Father would have us walk, 
and the work he would have us do. The 
importance of the subject cannot be ex- 
aggerated ; so much of our power and peace 
consists in knowing where God would 
have us be, and in being just there. 

The manna only falls where the cloudy 
pillar broods ; but it is certain to be found 
on the sands, which a few hours ago were 
glistening in the flashing light of the heav- 
enly fire, and are now shadowed by the 
fleecy canopy of cloud. If we are precisely 
where our heavenly Father would have us 
to be, we are perfectly sure that He will 
provide food and raiment, and everything 
beside. When He sends His servants to 
Cherith, He will make even the ravens to 
bring them food. 

How much of our Christian work has 
been abortive, because we have persisted 

25 



26 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

in initiating it for ourselves, instead of as- 
certaining what God was doing, and where 
He required our presence. We dream 
bright dreams of success. We try and 
command it. We call to our aid all kinds 
of expedients, questionable or otherwise. 
And at last we turn back, disheartened and 
ashamed, like children who are torn and 
scratched by the brambles, and soiled by 
the quagmire. IN'one of this had come 
about, if only we had been, from the first, 
under God's unerring guidance. He might 
test us, but he could not allow us to mis- 
take. 

Naturally, the child of God, longing to 
know his Father's will, turns to the sacred 
Book, and refreshes his confidence by 
noticing how in all ages God has guided 
those who dared to trust Him up to the 
very hilt, but who, at the time, must have 
been as perplexed as we are often now. 
We know how Abraham left kindred and 
country, and started, with no other guide 
than God, across the trackless desert to a 
land which he knew not. We know how 
for forty years the Israelites were led 
through the peninsula of Sinai, with its 
labyrinths of red sand-stone and its wastes 
of sand. We know how Joshua, in enter- 
ing the Land of Promise, was able to cope 
with the difficulties of an unknown region, 



i 



THE SECRET OF GUIDANCE. 27 

and to overcome great and warlike nations, 
because he looked to the Captain of the 
Lord's host, who ever leads to victory. 
We know how, in the earl}' Church, the 
Apostles were enabled to thread their way 
through the most difficult questions, and 
to solve the most perplexing problems ; 
laying down principles which will guide 
the Church to the end of time ; and this 
because it was revealed to them as to what 
they should do and say, by the Holy Spirit. 

The promises jor guidance are immistakahle^ 
Psalm xxxii. 8 : '' I will instruct thee and 
teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. " 
This is God's distinct assurance to those 
whose transgressions are forgiven, and 
whose sins are covered, and who are more 
quick to notice the least symptom of His 
will, than horse or mule to feel the bit. 

Prov. iii. 6 : ^' In all thy ways acknowl- 
edge Him, and He shall direct (or make 
plain) thy paths.'' A sure word, on which 
we may rest ; if only we fulfil the previous 
conditions, of trusting with all our heart, 
and of not leaning to our own understand- 
ing." 

Isa. Iviii. 11: ^^The Lord shall guide 
thee continually." It is impossible to 
think that He could guide us at all, if He 
did not guide us always. For the greatest 
events of life, like the huge rocking-stones 



28 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

in the west of England, revolve on the 
smallest points. A pebble may alter the 
flow of a stream. The growth of a grain 
of mustard seed may determine the rain- 
fall of a continent. Thus we are bidden 
to look for a Guidance which shall embrace 
the whole of life in all its myriad necessi- 
ties. 

John viii. 12: ^^I am the light of the 
world; he that foUoweth Me shall not 
walk in darkness, but shall have the light 
of life." The reference here seems to be 
to the wilderness wanderings ; and the 
Master promises to be to all faithful souls, in 
their pilgrimage to the City of God, what 
the cloudy pillar was to the children of 
Israel on their march to the Land of 
Promise. 

These are but specimens. The vault of 
Scripture is inlaid with thousands such, 
that glisten in their measure as the stars 
which guide the wanderer across the deep. 
Well may the prophet sum up the heritage 
of the servants of the Lord by saying of 
the Holy City, '^ All thy children shall be 
taught of the Lord, and great shall be the 
peace of thy children." 

And yet it may appear to some tried and 
timid hearts as if every one mentioned in 
the Word of God was helped, but they are 
left without help. They seem to have 



THE SECRET OF GUIDANCE. 29 

Stood before perplexing problems, face to 
face with life's mysteries, eagerly longing 
to know what to do, but no angel has come 
to tell them, and no iron gate has opened 
to them in the prison-house of circum- 
stances. 

&ome lay the blame on their oivn stupidity. 
Their minds are blunt and dull. They 
cannot catch God's meaning, which would 
be clear to others. They are so nervous of 
doing wrong, that they cannot learn clearly 
what is right. ^' Who is blind, but my 
servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I 
sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, 
and blind as the Lord's servant?*' Yet, 
how do we treat our children ? One child 
is so bright- witted and so keen that a little 
hint is enough to indicate the way ; an- 
other was born dull: it cannot take in 
your meaning quickly. Do you only let 
the clever one know what you want ? AA ill 
you not take the other upon your knee 
and make clear to it the directions which 
baffle it ? Does not the distress of the tiny 
nursling, who longs to know that it may 
immediatelv obey, weave an almost stronger 
bond than that which binds you to the rest? 
Oh! weary, perplexed, and stupid children, 
believe in the great love of God, and cast 
yourselves upon it, sure that he will come 
down to your ignorance, and suit Himself 



30 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE, 

to your needs, and will take '^ the lambs in 
His arms, and carry them in His bosom, 
and gently lead those that are with young.'' 

There are certain practical directions 
which we must attend to in order that we 
may be led into the mind of the Lord. 

1. — Our Motives must he Pure, ^^ When 
thine eye is single, thy whole body is also 
full of light'' (Luke xi. 34). You have 
been much in darkness lately, and perhaps 
this passage will point the reason. Your 
eye has not been single. There has been 
some obliquity of vision. A spiritual 
squint. And this has hindered you from 
discerning indications of God's will, which 
otherwise had been as clear as noonday. 

We must be very careful in judging our 
motives : searching them as the detectives 
at the doors of the House of Commons 
search each stranger who enters. When, 
by the grace of God, we have been deliv- 
ered from grosser forms of sin, we are still 
liable to the subtle working of self in our 
holiest and loveliest hours. It poisons 
our motives. It breathes decay on our 
fairest fruit-bearing. It whispers seduc- 
tive flatteries into our pleased ears. It 
turns the spirit from its holy purpose as 
the masses of iron on ocean steamers de- 
flect the needle of the compass from the 
pole. 



THE SECRET OF GUIDANCE. 31 

So long as there is some thought of per- 
sonal advantage, some idea of acquiring 
the praise and commendation of men, some 
aim at self-aggrandizement, it will be sim- 
ply impossible to find out God's purpose 
concerning us. The door must be reso- 
lutely shut against all this, if we would 
hear the still small voice. All cross-lights 
must be excluded, if we would see the Urim 
and Thummim stone brighten with God's 
'^ Yes," or darken with his " ]S'o." 

Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the 
single eye, and to inspire in your heart one 
aim alone ; that which animated our Lord, 
and enabled Him to cry, as He reviewed 
His life, ^* I have glorified Thee on earth.' ^ 
Let this be the watchword of our lives, 
^^ Glory to God in the highest." Then our 
^' whole body shall be full of light, having 
no part dark, as when the bright shining 
of a candle doth give light." 

2. — Our Will must be Surrendered. ^^My 
judgment is just ; because I seek not Mine 
ow^n will, but the will of the Father which 
hath sent Me" (John v. 30). This was 
the secret, which Jesus not only practiced, 
but taught. In one form or another He 
was constantly insisting on a surrendered 
will, as the key to perfect knowledge, 
^^ If any man will do His will, he shall 
know." 



32 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

There is all the difference between a will 
which is extinguished and one which is 
surrendered. God does not demand that 
our wills should be crushed out, like the 
sinews of a fakir's unused arm. He only 
asks that they should say ^^ Yes '' to Him. 
Pliant to Him as the willow twig to the 
practiced hand. 

Many a time, as the steamer has neared 
the quay, have I watched the little lad 
take his place beneath the poop, with eye 
and ear fixed on the captain, and waiting 
to shout each word he utters to the grimy 
engineers below ; and often have I longed 
that my will should repeat as accurately, 
and as promptly, the words and will of 
God, that all the lower nature might obey. 

It is for the lack of this subordination 
that we so often miss the guidance we seek. 
There is a secret controversy between our 
will and God's. And we shall never be 
right till we have let Him take, and break, 
and make. Oh ! do seek for that. If you 
cannot give, let Him take. If you are not 
willing, confess that you are willing to be 
made willing. Hand yourself over to Him 
to work in you, to will and to do of His 
own good pleasure. We must be as plastic 
clay, ready to take any shape that the great 
Potter may choose, so shall we be able to 
detect His guidance. 



THE SECRET OF GUIDANCE. 33 

3. — We must seek Information for our Mind, 
This is certainly the next step. God 
has given us these wonderful faculties of 
brain power, and He will not ignore them. 
In the days of the Eeformation He did not 
destroy the Roman Catholic churches or 
pulpits ; He did better. He preached in 
them. And in grace He does not cancel 
the action of any of His marvelous bestow- 
ments, but He uses them for the communi- 
cation of His purposes and thoughts. 

It is of the greatest importance, then, 
that we should feed our minds with facts ; 
with reliable information ; with the results 
of human experience, and above all, with 
the teachings of the Word of God. It is 
matter for the utmost admiration to notice 
how full the Bible is of biography and his- 
tory : so that there is hardly a single crisis 
in our lives that may not be matched from 
those wondrous pages. There is no book 
like the Bible for casting a light on the 
dark landings of human life. 

We have no need or right to run hither 
and thither to ask our friends what we 
ought to do ; but there is no harm in our 
taking pains to gather all reliable informa- 
tion, on which the flame of holy thought 
and consecrated purpose may feed and 
grow strong. It is for us ultimately to 
decide as God shall teach us, but His 



34 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

voice may come to us through the voice of 
sanctified common-sense, acting on the 
materials we have collected. Of course at 
times God may bid us act against our rea- 
son ; but these are very exceptional ; and 
then our duty will be so clear that there 
can be no mistake. But for the most part 
God will speak in the results of deliberate 
consideration, weighing and balancing the 
pros and cons. 

When Peter was shut up in prison, and 
could not possibly extricate himself, an 
angel was sent to do for him what he could 
not do for himself; but when they had 
passed through a street or two of the city, 
the angel left him to consider the matter 
for himself. Thus God treats us still. He 
will dictate a miraculous course by miracu- 
lous methods. But when the ordinary light 
of reason is adequate to the task, He will 
leave us to act as occasion may serve. 

4. — We must be much in Prayer for Guidance. 
The Psalms are full of earnest pleadings 
for clear direction: ^^Show me Thy way, 
O Lord, lead me in a plain path, because 
of mine enemies." It is the law of our 
Father's house that His children shall ask 
for what they want. '^If any man lack 
wisdom, let him ask of God, who giA^eth to 
all men liberally, and upbraideth not.'' 

In a time of change and crisis, we need 



THE SECRET OF GUIDANCE. 35 

to be much in prayer, not only on our 
knees, but in that sweet form of inward 
prayer, in which the spirit is constantly 
offering itself up to God, asking to be 
shown His will ; soliciting that it may be 
impressed upon its surface, as the heavenly 
bodies photograph themselves on pre- 
pared paper. Wrapt in prayer like this 
the truthful believer may tread the deck 
of the ocean steamer night after night, 
sure that He who points the stars their 
courses will not fail to direct the soul which 
has no other aim than to do His will. 

One good form of prayer at such a junc- 
ture is to ask that doors may be shut, that 
the way may be closed, and that all enter- 
prises which are not according to God's 
will may be arrested at their very begin- 
ning. Put the matter absolutely into God's 
hands from the outset, and He will not fail 
to shatter the project and defeat the aim 
which is not according to His holy will. 

5. — We must wait the gradual Unfolding of 
God^s Plan in Providence. God's impres- 
sions within and His word without are al- 
ways corroborated by His Providence 
around, and we should quietly wait until 
these three focus into one point. 

Sometimes it looks as if we are bound to 
act. Every one says we must do some- 
thing ; and indeed things seem to have 



36 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

reached so desperate a pitch that we must. 
Behind are the Egyptians ; right and left 
are inaccessible precipices; before is the sea. 
It is not easy at such times to stand still 
and see the salvation of God ; but we must. 
When Saul compelled himself, and offered 
sacrifice, because he thought that Samuel 
was too late in coming, he made the great 
mistake of his life. 

God may delay to come in the guise of 
His Providence. There was delay ere Sen- 
nacherib's host lay like withered leaves 
around the Holy City. There was delay 
ere Jesus came walking on the sea in the 
early dawn, or hastened to raise Lazarus. 
There was delay ere the angel sped to 
Peter's side on the night before his ex- 
pected martyrdom. He stays long enough 
to test patience of faith, but not a moment 
behind the extreme hour of need. ^^ The 
vision is yet for an appointed time, but at 
the end it shall speak, and shall not lie ; 
though it tarry, wait for it ; because it will 
surely come ; it will not tarry. ' ' 

It is very remarkable how God guides us 
by circumstances. At one moment the 
way may seem utterly blocked, and then 
shortly afterwards some trivial incident 
occurs, which might not seem much to 
others, but which to the keen eye of faith 
speaks volumes. Sometimes these signs 



THE SECRET OF GUIDANCE. 37 

are repeated in different ways in answer 
to prayer. They are not haphazard results 
of chance, but the opening up of circum- 
stances in the direction in which we should 
walk. And they begin to multiply, as we 
advance towards our goal, just as lights do 
as we near a populous town, when darting 
through the land by night express. 

Sometimes men sigh for an angel to 
come to point them their way : that simply 
indicates that as yet the time has not come 
for them to move. If you do not know 
what you ought to do, stand still until you 
do. And when the time comes for action, 
circumstances, like glow-worms, will 
sparkle along your path ; and you will be- 
come so sure that you are right, when 
God's three witnesses concur, that you 
could not be surer though an angel beck- 
oned you on. 

The circumstances of our daily life are 
to us an infallible indication of God's will, 
when they concur with the inward prompt- 
ings of the Spirit and with the Word of 
God. So long as they are stationary, 
wait. When you must act, they will open, 
and a way will be made through oceans 
and rivers, wastes and rocks. 

We often make a great mistake, thinking 
that God is not guiding us at all, because 
we cannot see far in front. But this is 
not His method. He only undertakes that 



38 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

the steps of a good man should be ordered 
by the Lord. Not next year, but to-mor- 
row. ]^ot the next mile, but the next 
yard. Not the whole pattern, but the 
next stitch in the canvas. If you expect 
more than this you will be disappointed, 
and get back into the dark. But this will 
secure for you leading in the right way, as 
you will acknowledge when you review it 
from the hill- tops of glory. 

We cannot ponder too deeply the lessons 
of the cloud given in the exquisite picture- 
lesson on Guidance (Num. ix. 15-23). 
Let us look high enough for guidance. Let 
us encourage our soul to wait only upon 
God till it is given. Let us cultivate that 
meekness which He will guide in judgment. 
Let us seek to be of quick understanding, 
that we may be apt to see the least sign of 
His will. Let us stand with girded loins 
and lighted lamps, that we may be prompt 
to obey. Blessed are those servants. They 
shall be led by a right way to the golden 
city of the saints. 

Speaking for myself, after months of wait- 
ing and prayer, I have become absolutely 
sure of the Guidance of my heavenly Fa- 
ther ; and with the emphasis of personal 
experience, I would encourage each trou- 
bled and perplexed soul that may read 
these lines to wait patiently for the Lord, 
until He clearly indicates His will. 



The Chambers of the King 



THE CHAMBERS OF THE KING. 

CHRISTIAN experience may be com- 
pared to a suite of royal apartments, 
of which the first opens into the 
second, and that again into the third, and 
so on. It is, of course, true that be- 
lievers enter on a possession of all so soon 
as they are born into the royal, divine 
household. But, as a matter of fact, 
certain truths stand out more clearly to 
them at different stages of their history, 
and thus their successive experiences may 
be compared to the chambers of a palace, 
through which they pass to the throne- 
room and presence-chamber of their King. 
And the King Himself is waiting at the 
threshold to act as guide. The key is in 
His hand, which opens, and no man shuts ; 
which shuts, and no man opens. Have 
you entered the first of those chambers? 
If not. He waits to unlock the first door of 
all to you at this moment, and to lead you 
forward from stage to stage, till you have 
realized all that can be enjo^^ed by saintly 
hearts on this side the gates of pearl. 

41 



42 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

Only be sure to follow where Jesus leads 
the way. ^^Draw me, we will run after 
Thee'' (Sol. Song i. 4). 

THE FIRST CHAMBER IN THE KING'S HOLY 

PALACE IS THE CHAMBER OF THE 

NEW BIRTH. 

In some cases it is preceded by a portico, 
known as Conviction for Sin. But as the 
portico is not part of the house, and all do 
not pass through it, we need not stay fur- 
ther to describe it. Over the door of this 
chamber are inscribed the words : '^ Except 
a man be born again, he cannot enter" 
(John iii. 3-5) . 

By nature we are destitute of life — dead 
in trespasses and sins. We need, therefore, 
first, not a new creed, but a new life. The 
prophet's staff is well enough where there 
is life ; but it is useless on the face of a 
dead babe. The first requisite is Life. 
This is what the Holy Spirit gives us at the 
moment of conversion. He comes to us 
through some truth of the incorruptible 
Word of God, and implants the first spark 
of the new life ; and we who were dead, 
live. Thus we enter the first room in our 
Father's palace, where the new-born babes 
are welcomed and nursed and fed. 

We may remember the day and place of 
our new birth, or we may be as ignorant 



THE CHAMBERS OF THE KING. 43 

of them as of the circumstances of our 
natural birth. But what does it matter 
that a man cannot recall his birthday, so 
long as he knows that he is alive? 

As an outstretched hand has two sides — 
the upper, called tlie bach; the under, called 
the palm — so there are two sides and names 
for the act of entrance into the Chamber of 
the IS'ew Birth. Angels, looking at it from 
the heaven side, call it being born again. 
Men, looking at it from the earth side, call 
it trusting Jesus. '^ Those that believe in 
His name are born ;" ^' Those that receive 
Him have the right to become the sons of 
God" (John i. 12, 13). If you are born 
again, you will trust. And if you are 
trusting Jesus, however many ^^our doubts 
and fears, you are certainly born again, 
and have entered the palace. If you go no 
further, you will be saved, but you will 
miss untold blessedness. 

From the chamber of birth, where the 
new-born ones rejoice together, realizing 
for the first time the throbbing of the life 
of God, there is a door leading into a sec- 
ond chamber, which may be called 

THE CHAMBER OF ASSURANCE. 

And over that door of entrance, where the 
King awaits us with beckoning hand, these 
words are engraved : ^ ^ Beloved, now are we 



44 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

the sons of God" (1 John iii. 2). In 
many cases, of course, assurance follows 
immediately on conversion, as a father's 
kiss on his words of forgiveness to the pen- 
itent child. But it is also true, that there 
are some souls, truly saved, who pass 
through weeks, months, and sometimes 
years, without being sure of their standing 
in Jesus, or deriving any comfort from it. 

True assurance comes from the work of 
the Holy Spirit through the sacred Scrip- 
tures. Eead the Word looking for His 
teaching. Think ten times of Christ for 
every once of yourself. Dwell much on 
all references to His finished work. Un- 
derstand that you are so truly one with 
Him, that you died in Him, lay with Him 
in the garden tomb, rose with Him, as- 
cended with Him back to God, and have 
been already welcomed and accepted in 
the Beloved (Eph. ii. 5, 6). Eemember 
that His Father is your Father, and that 
you are a son in the Son ; and as you dwell 
on these truths, opening your heart to the 
Holy Spirit, He will pervade your soul 
with a blessed conviction that you have 
eternal life, and that you are a child, not 
because you feel it, but because God says 
so (John iii. 36 ; Eom. viii. 16) . 

The door at the further end of this 
apartment leads into another chamber of 



THE CHAMBERS OF THE KING, 45 

the King. It is the door of consecration, 
leading into the 

CHAMBER OF A SURRENDERED WILL. 

Above the doorway stand the words : 
^^ From henceforth let no man trouble me : 
for I bear branded on my body the marks 
of Jesus ; whose I am, and whom I serve '^ 
(Gal. vi. 17, R. V.; and Acts xxvii. 23). 
Consecration is giving Jesus His own. We 
are His by right, because He bought us 
with His blood. But^ alas^ He has not had 
His money'' s worth ! He paid for all, and He 
has had but a fragment of our energy, 
time, and earnings. By an act of conse- 
cration, let us ask Him to forgive the rob- 
bery of the past, and let us profess our 
desire to be henceforth utterly and only 
for Him ; His slaves. His chattels, owning 
no master than Himself. 

As soon as we say this. He will test our 
sincerity, as He did the young ruler's, by 
asking something of us. He will lay His 
finger on something within us which He 
wants us to alter, obeying some command, 
or abstaining from some indulgence. If we 
instantly give up our will and way to Him, 
we pass the narrow doorway into the 
Chamber of Surrender, which has a south- 
ern aspect, and is ever warm and radiant 
with His presence, because obedience is 



46 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

the condition of manifested love (John 
xiv. 23). 

This doorway is very narrow, and en- 
trance is only possible for fchose who will 
lay aside weights as well as sins. A weight 
is anything which, without being essential- 
ly wrong or hurtful to others, is yet a hin- 
drance to ourselves. We may always know 
a weight by three signs : fir^t^ we are un- 
easy about it ; second^ we argue for it 
against our conscience ; third^ we go about 
asking people's advice, whether we may 
not keep it without harm. All these things 
must be laid aside in the strength which 
Jesus waits to give. Ask Him to deal 
with them for you, that you may be set in 
joint in every good work to do His will (Heb. 
xiii. 21). 

At the further end of this apartment 
another door invites us to enter 

THE CHAMBER OF THE FILLING OF THE 
SPIRIT. 

And above the entrance glisten the words, 
^' Be filled with the Spirit '' (Eph. v. 18). 
We gladly admit that the Holy Spirit is 
literally in the heart of every true believ- 
er (Eom. viii. 9) ; and that the whole work 
of grace in our souls is due to Him, from 
the first desire to be saved to the last 
prayer breathed on the threshold of heaven. 



THE CHAMBERS OF THE KING. 47 

But it is also true that a period comes in 
our education, when we become more alive 
to the necessity of the Holy Spirit, and 
seek for more of his all-pervading heart- 
hlling presence. 

Many of us have lately been startled to 
find that we have been content with too 
little of the Holy Spirit. There has been 
enough throne-water to cover the stones 
in the river-bed, but not to fill its channel. 
Instead of occupying all, our gracious 
Guest has been confined to one or tw^o 
back rooms of our hearts ; as a poor house- 
keeper is sometimes put in to keep a man- 
sion, dwelling in attic or cellar ; while the 
suites of splendid apartments are consigned 
to dust-sheets and cobwebs, shuttered, dis- 
mantled, and locked. 

Each Christian has the Holy Spirit ; but 
each Christian needs more and more of 
Him, until the whole nature is filled, l^ay, 
it would be truer to say, the Holy Spirit 
wants more and more of us. Let us ask our 
heavenly Father to give us of His Spirit in 
ever enlarging measures; and as we ask, 
let us yield ourselves incessantly to His 
indwelling and in working. Then let us 
believe that we are filled, not because 
we feel it, but because we are sure that 
God is keeping His word with us : ^^ Ye 
shall not see wind, neither shall ye see 



48 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

rain ; yet that valley shall be filled with 
water. ' ' 

It is true that the filling of the Spirit in- 
volves separation, a giving up, a going 
apart, which is keenly bitter to the flesh. 
The filling of Pentecost is a baptism of fire. 
But there is joy amid the flames as the 
bonds shrivel, and the limbs are free, and 
the Son of God walks beside. 

But this chamber leads to another of ex- 
ceeding blessedness. 

THE CHAMBER OF ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

Around the doorway a vine is sculptured^ 
with trailing branches and pendent grapes; 
and, entwined among the foliage, these 
words appear: ^^ Abide in Me, and I in 
you'' (John xv. 4). The Holy Spirit 
never reveals Himself. Those who have 
most of His grace, ^^wist it not." His 
chosen work is to reveal the Lord. We 
are not conscious of the Spirit, but of Him 
who is the Alpha and Omega of our life. 
Christ's loveliness fills the soul, where the 
Spirit is in full possession, as the odor of 
the ointment filled the house at Bethany. 
Our Lord is with us all the days ; but 
often our eyes are holden, that we do not 
know Him ; and if for a radiant moment 
we discern Him, He vanishes from our 
sight. There is an experience which we do 



THE CHAMBERS OF THE KING. 49 

not only believe that He is near, but we 
perceive His presence by the instinct of the 
heart. He becomes a living, bright reality; 
sitting by our hearth, walking beside us 
through the crowded streets, sailing with us 
across the stormy lake, standing beside the 
graves that hold our dead, sharing our 
crosses and our burdens, turning the water 
of common joys into the wine of holy sac- 
raments. 

Then the believer leans hard on the 
ever-present Lord, drawing on His fulness, 
appropriating His unsearchable riches, 
claiming from Him grace to turn every 
temptation into the means of increasing 
likeness to Himself. And if the branch 
abide constantly in the Vine, it cannot 
help bearing fruit ; nay, the diflSculty would 
be to keep fruit back. 

We have to do with the death and not 
with the life part of our experience (Eom. 
viii. 13). The oftener we sow ourselves 
in the clods of daily self-denial, falling into 
the furrows to die, the more fruit we bear. 
It is by always bearing about in the body 
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life 
of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal 
flesh. Prune off every bud on the old 
stock, and all the energy will pass up to 
the rare flowers and fruits grafted there by 
Heaven. 



50 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

But see the King beckons us forward to 
pass onwards into « 

THE CHAMBER OF VICTORY OYER SIN. 

Above the door are the words : ^^ Whoso- 
ever abideth in Him sinneth not '' (1 John 
iii. 6). Around the walls hang various 
instruments of war (Eph. vi. 13); and fres- 
coes of the over-comers receiving the fair 
rewards which the King hath promised 
(Eev. ii., iii). We must be careful of the 
order in which we put these things. Many 
seek victory over sin before yielding them- 
selves entirely to God. But you can never 
enter this chamber, where the palm-branch 
waves, unless you have passed through the 
chamber of consecration. 

Give yourself wholly up to Jesus, and 
He will keep you. Will you dare to say, 
that He can hold the oceans in the hollow 
of His hand, and sustain the arch of heaven, 
and fill the sun with light for millenniums, 
but that He cannot keep you from being 
overcome by sin, or filled with the impetu- 
ous rush of unholy passion ? Can He not 
deliver His saints from the sword. His dar- 
lings from the power of the dog ? Is all 
power given Him in heaven and on earth, 
and must He stand paralyzed before the 
devils that possess you, unable to cast them 
out ? To ask such questions is to answer 



THE CHAMBERS OF THE KING. 51 

them. ^^I am persuaded He is able to 
keep^' (2 Tim. i. 12 ; 1 John v. 11). 

We may expect to be tempted till we 
die. We certainly shall carry about with 
us an evil nature, which would manifest 
itself, unless kept in check by the grace of 
God. But if we abide in Christ, and He 
abide in us, if we live under the power of 
the Holy Spirit, temptation will excite no 
fascination in us, but, on the contrary, hor- 
ror ; the least stirring of our self-life will 
be instantly noticed, and met by the Name 
and Blood and Spirit of Jesus ; the tides 
of His purity and life will flow so strongly 
over our being as to sweep away any black 
drops of ink oozing upwards from the 
sand. 

You must, however, irrevocably shut the 
back door, as well as the front door, against 
sin. You must not dally with it as possi- 
ble in any form. You must see that you 
are shut up to saintliness by the purpose 
of God (Eom. viii. 29) . You must defi- 
nitely and forever elect the cross as the 
destiny of your self-life. And you will 
find that He will save you from all that 
you dare to trust Him with. ^' Everyplace 
that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, 
that have I given unto thee." And His 
work within is most perfect when it is 
least apparent ; and when the flesh is kept 



52 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

SO utterly in abeyance that we begin to 
think it has been altogether extracted. 

Yet another door, at the far end of this 
chamber, summons us to advance to 

THE CHAMBER OF HEART REST. 

The King Himself spoke its motto-text : 
^'Take My yoke, and ye shall find rest 
unto your souls" (Matt. xi. 29). Soft 
strains float on the air ; the peace of God 
stands sentry against intruding care. Of 
course the soul learnt something of rest at 
the very outset. But those words of the 
Master indicate that there are at least two 
kinds of rest. And so the rest of forgive- 
ness passes into the rest of surrender and 
satisfaction. 

We lay our worries and cares where once 
we only laid our sins. We lose the tu- 
multuous fever and haste of earlier days. 
We become oblivious to praise on the one 
hand and censure on the other. Our soul 
is poised on God, satisfied with God, seeks 
nothing outside God, regards all things 
from the standpoint of eternity and of God. 
The life loses the babble of its earlier 
course, and sweeps onwards to the ocean, 
from which it derived its being, with a 
stillness which bespeaks its depth, a seren- 
ity which foretells its destiny. The very 
face tells the tale of the sweet, still life 



THE CHAMBERS OF THE KING. 53 

within, which is attuned to the everlasting 
chime of the land where storms come not, 
nor conflict, nor alarm. 

Some say that the door at the end of this 
chamber leads into the chamber of 

FELLOWSHIP EST CHRIST^S SUFFERINGS. 

It may be so. All along the Christian's 
course there is a great and growing love 
for the world for which He died. But there 
are times when that love amounts almost 
to an agony of compassion and desire ; and 
there come suflferings caused by the thorn- 
crown, the sneer, the mockery, the cross, 
the spear, the baptism of blood and tears. 
All these fall to the lot of the followers of the 
King ; and perhaps they come most plenti- 
fully to the saintliest, the likest to the Lord. 

But certain it is that those who suffer 
thus are they who reign. Their sufferings 
are not for a moment to be compared to 
the glory revealed in their lives. And out 
of their bitter griefs, sweetened by the 
Cross, gush water-springs to refresh the 
weary heritage of God, like the waters of 
the Exodus (Exod. xv. 25) . 

Beyond all these, and separated from 
them by a very slight interval, are the 

MANSIONS OF THE FATHER'S HOUSE, 

into which the King will lead us presently, 
chamber after chamber of delight, stretch 



54 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

after stretch of golden glory, until these 
natures, which are but as an infant's, have 
developed to the measure of the stature of 
our full growth, unto the likeness of the 
Son of God. 

O soul ! where have you got to ? Do not 
linger inside the first chamber, but press 
on and forward. If any door seems 
locked, knock, and it shall be opened unto 
you. Never consider that you have at- 
tained, or are already perfect, but follow 
on to apprehend all that for which Jesus 
Christ apprehended you. 



In the Secret 



His Presence 



IN THE SECRET OF HIS PRESENCE. 

1^ one sense God is always near us. He 
is not an Absentee, needing to be 
brought down from the heavens or up 
from the deep. He is nigh at hand. His 
Being pervades all being. Every world, 
that floats like an islet in the ocean of space, 
is filled with signs of His presence, just as 
the home of your friend is littered with the 
many evidences of his residence, by which 
you know that he lives there, though you 
have not seen his face. Every crocus push- 
ing through the dark mould ; every fire-fly 
in the forest ; every bird that springs up 
from its nest before your feet ; everything 
that is — all are as full of God's presence, as 
the bush which burned with His fire, be- 
fore which Moses bared his feet in acknowl- 
edgment that God was there. 

But we do not always realize it. We 
often pass hours, and days, and weeks; we 
sometimes engage in seasons of prayer ; we 
go to and fro from His house, where the 
ladder of communion rests ; and still He is 

57 



58 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

a shadow, a name, a tradition, a dream of 
days gone by. 

^' Oh! that I knew where I might find Him, 
that I might come even to His seat. Behold ! 1 
go forward, hut He is not there; and backward, 
hut I cannot perceive Him; on the left hand, 
where He doth work, hut I cannot hehold Him; 
He hideth Himself on the right hand, and I see 
Him not. ' ' 

How different is this failure to realize the 
presence of God to the blessed experience 
of His nearness realized by some. 

Brother Lawrence, the simple-minded cook, 
tells us that for more than sixty years he 
never lost the sense of the presence of God, 
but was as conscious of it while performing 
the duties of his humble office, as when 
partaking of the Holy Supper. 

John Howe, on the blank page of his Bi- 
ble, made this record in Latin: ^^This 
very morning I awoke out of a most rav- 
ishing and delightful dream, when a won- 
derful and copious stream of celestial rays, 
from the lofty throne of the Divine Ma- 
jesty, seemed to dart into my open and ex- 
panded breast. I have often since re- 
flected on that very signal pledge of special 
Divine favor, and have with repeated 
fresh pleasure tasted the delights thereof. ' ' 

Another experience is recorded thus : ' ' Sud- 
denly there came on my soul a something 



IN THE SECRET OF HIS PRESENCE. 59 

I had never known before. It was as if 
some One Infinite and Almighty, knowing 
everything, full of the deepest, tenderest 
interest in myself, made known to me that 
He loved me. My eye saw no one, but I 
knew assuredly that the One whom I knew 
not, and had never met, had met me for 
the first time, and made known to me that 
we were together." 

Are not these experiences^ so blessed and in- 
spiring^ similar to that of the author of the 
longest^ and, in some respects, the sublimest 
Psalm in the Psalter f He had been beating 
out the golden ore of thought through suc- 
cessive paragraphs of marvelous power 
and beauty, when suddenly he seems to 
have become conscious that He, of whom 
he had been speaking, had drawn near, 
and was bending over him. The sense of 
the presence of God was borne in upon his 
inner consciousness. And, lifting up a 
face, on which reverence and ecstasy met 
and mingled, he cried, ^^ Thoii art near, 
Lord!'' (cxix. 15^1). 

If only such an experience of the near- 
ness of God were always ours, enwrapping 
us as air or light ; if only we could feel, as 
the great Apostle put it on Mars' Hill, that 
God is not far away, but the element in 
which we have our being, as sea-flowers in 
deep still lagoons ; — then we should under- 



60 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIEE, 

stand what David meant when he spoke 
about dwelling in the house of the Lord all 
the days of his life, beholding His beauty, 
inquiring in His temple, and hidden in the 
secret of His pavilion (Ps. xxvii.). Then, 
too, we should acquire the blessed secret of 
'peace ^ purity^ and power. 

In the Secret of His Presence there is Peace. 
" In the world ye shall have tribulation,'^ 
our Master said, '^ but in Me ye shall have 
peace. ' ' It is said that a certain insect has 
the power of surrounding itself with a film 
of air, encompassed in which it drops into 
the midst of muddy, stagnant pools, and 
remains unhurt. And the believer is also 
conscious that he is enclosed in the invis- 
ible film of the Divine Presence, as a far- 
traveled letter in the envelope which pro- 
tects it from hurt and soil. 

'^ They draw near me that follow after 
mischief," but Thou art nearer than the 
nearest, and I dwell in the inner ring of 
Thy presence ; the mountains round about 
me are filled with the horses and chariots 
of Thy protection ; no weapon that is 
formed against me can prosper, for it can 
only reach me through Thee, and, touching 
Thee, will glance harmlessly aside. To be 
in God is to be in a well-fitted house when 
the storm has slipped from its leash ; or in 
a sanctuary, the doors of which shut out , 
the pursuer. 



IN THE SECRET OF HIS PRESENCE. 61 

In the Secret of His Presence there is Purity. 
The mere vision of snow-capped Alps, seen 
from afar across Geneva's lake, so elevates 
and transfigures the rapt and wistful soul 
as to abash all evil things which would 
thrust them selves upon the inner life. The 
presence of a little child, with its guileless 
purity, has been known to disarm passion, 
as a beam of light, falling in a reptile- 
haunted cave, scatters the slimy snakes. 
But what shall not Thy presence do for 
me, if I acquire a perpetual sense of it, and 
live in its secret place? Surely, in the 
heart of that fire, black cinder though I be, 
I shall be kept pure, and glowing, and in- 
tense ! 

In the Secret of His Presence there is Power. 
My cry, day and night, is for power — spir- 
itual power. ]N'ot the power of intellect, 
oratory, or human might. These cannot 
avail to vanquish the serried ranks of evil. 
Thou sayest truly that it is not by might 
or power. Yet human souls which touch 
Thee become magnetized, and charged 
with a spiritual force which the world can 
neither gainsay nor resist. Oh ! let me 
touch Thee ! Let me dwell in unbroken 
contact with Thee, that out of Thee suc- 
cessive tides of Divine energy may pass 
into and through my emptied and eager 
spirit, flowing, but never ebbing, and lift- 



62 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

ing me into a life of blessed ministry , wMch 
shall make deserts like the garden of the 
Lord. 

J^iit how shall we get and keep this sense of 
God^s nearness f Must we go back to Bethel , 
with its pillar of stone, where even Jacob 
said, "• Surely God is in this place? '' Ah, 
we might have stood beside him, with un- 
anointed eye, and seen no ladder, heard no 
voice ; whilst the patriarch would discover 
God in the bare moorlands of our lives, 
trodden by us without reverence or joy. 
Must we travel to the mouth of the cave in 
whose shadow Elijah stood, thrilled by the 
music of the still small voice, sweeter by 
contrast with the thunder and the storm ? 
Alas ! we might have stood beside him un- 
conscious of that glorious Presence, whilst 
Elijah, if living now, would discern it in 
the whisper of the wind, the babbling of 
babes, the rhythm of heart-throbs. If we 
had stationed ourselves in our present state 
beside the Apostle Paid when he was caught 
into the third heaven, we should probably 
have seen nothing but a tent- maker's shop, 
or a dingy room in a hired lodging. We 
in the dark, whilst he was in transports. 
Whilst he would discern, were he to live 
again, angels on our steam-ships, visions 
in our temples, doors opening into heaven 
amid the tempered glories of our more 
sombre skies. 



IN THE SECRET OF HIS PRESENCE. 63 

In point of fact we carry everywhere onr 
circumference of light or dark. God is as 
much in the world as He was when Enoch 
walked with Him, and Moses communed 
with Him face to face. He is as willing to 
be a living, bright, glorious Eeality to us 
as to them. But the fault is with us. Our 
eyes are unanointed, because our hearts 
are not right. The pure in heart still see 
God. And to those who love Him, and 
do His commandments, He still manifests 
Himself as He does not to the world. Let 
us cease to blame our times ; let us blame 
ourselves. We are degenerate, not they. 

What^ ihen^ is that temper of soul which most 
readily perceives the presence and nearness of 
Godf Let us endeavor to learn the 
blessed secret of abiding ever in the secret 
of His Presence and of being hidden in 
His Pavilion (Ps. xxxi. 20). 

Remember then, at the outset, that 
neither thou, nor any of our race, can have 
that glad consciousness of the Presence of 
God except through Jesus. None knoweth 
the Father but the Son, and those to 
whom the Son reveals Him ; and none 
cometh to the Father but by Him. Apart 
from Jesus the Presence of God is an ob- 
ject of terror, from which devils hide them- 
selves in hell, and sinners weave aprons, 
or hide among the trees. But in Him all 



64 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

barriers are broken down, all veils rent, 
all clouds dispersed, and the weakest be- 
liever may live, where Moses sojourned, in 
the midst of the fire, before whose consum- 
ing flames no impurity can stand. 

What part of the Lord^s work is most 
closely connected with this blessed sense of 
the Presence of God ? 

It is through the blood of His Cross that 
sinners are made nigh. For in His death 
He not only revealed the tender love of 
God, but put away our sins, and wove for us 
those garments of stainless beauty, in 
which we are gladly welcomed into the in- 
ner Presence-chamber of the King: Re- 
member it is said: '' I will commune with 
thee from off the mercy- seat. ' ' That golden 
slab on which Aaron sprinkled blood when- 
ever he entered the most Holy Place was a 
type of Jesus. He is the true mercy-seat. 
And it is when thou enterest into deepest 
fellowship with Him in His death, and 
livest most constantly in the spirit of His 
memorial supper, that thou shalt realize 
most deeply His nearness. Now, as at 
Emmaus, He loves to make Himself known 
in the breaking of bread. 

And is this all ? for I have heard this 
many times, and still fail to live in the se- 
cret place as I would. 

Exactly so ; and therefore, to do for us 



IN THE SECRET OF HIS PRESENCE. 65 

what no eflfort of ours could do, our Lord 
has received of His Father the promise of 
the Holy Ghost, that He should bring into 
our hearts the very Presence of God. Un- 
derstand that since thou art Christ's, the 
blessed Comforter is thine. He is within 
thee as He was within thy Lord ; and in 
proportion as thou dost live in the Spirit, 
and walk in the Spirit, and open thine en- 
tire nature to Him, thou wilt find thyself 
becoming His Presence-chamber, irradiated 
with the light of His glory. And as thou 
dost realize that He is in thee, thou wilt 
realize that thou art ever in Him. Thus 
the beloved Apostle wrote, ^' Hereby know 
we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, 
because He hath given us of His Spirit." 

All this I know, and yet I fail to realize 
this marvelous fact of the indwelling of 
the Spirit in me ; how then can I ever re- 
alize my indwelling in Him ? 

It is because thy life is so hurried ; thou 
dost not take time enough for meditation 
and prayer ; the Spirit of God within thee 
and the Presence of God without thee can- 
not be discerned whilst the senses are oc- 
cupied with pleasure, or the pulse beats 
quickly, or the brain is filled with the 
tread of many hurrying thoughts. It is 
when water stands that it becomes pellucid, 
and reveals the pebbly beach below. Be 



66 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

still, and know that God is within thee and 
around. In the hush of the soul the un- 
seen becomes visible, and the eternal real. 
The eye dazzled by the sun cannot detect 
the beauties of its pavilion till it has had 
time to rid itself of the glare. Let no day 
pass without its season of silent waiting 
before God. 

Are there any other conditions which I 
should fulfill, so that I may abide in the 
secret of His Presence ? 

''Be pure in heart. ^^ Every permitted sin 
encrusts the windows of the soul with 
thicker layers of grime, obscuring the 
vision of God. But every victory over 
impurity and selfishness clears the spirit- 
ual vision, and there fall from the eyes, as 
it had been, scales. In the power of the 
Holy Ghost deny self, give no quarter to 
sin, resist the devil, and thou shalt see God. 

The unholy soul could not see God, even 
though it were set down in the midst of 
heaven. But holy souls see God amid the 
ordinary commonplaces of earth, and find 
everywhere an open vision. Such could 
not be nearer God, though they stood by 
the sea of glass. Their only advantage 
there would be that, the veil of their mor- 
tal and sinful natures having been rent, 
the vision would be directer and more per^ 
feet. 



IN THE SECRET OF HIS PRESENCE, 67 

Kee'p His commandments. Let there be 
not one jot or tittle unrecognized and un- 
kept. He that hath My commandments and 
keepeth thejn, he it is that loveth Me, and he 
that loveth Me shall he loved of My Father, and 
I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him, 
Moses, the faithful servant, was also the 
seer, and spake with God face to face as a 
man speaketh with his friend. 

Continue in the Spirit of Prayer. Some- 
times the vision will tarry to test the earn- 
estness and steadfastness of thy desire. 
At other times it will come as the dawn 
steals over the sky, and, or ever thou art 
aware thou wilt find thyself conscious that 
He is near. He was ever wont to glide^ 
unheralded, into the midst of His disci- 
ples through unopened doors. '' Thy foot- 
steps are not known. ' ' 

At such times we may truly say with 
St. Bernard : ^^ He entered not by the eyes, 
for His presence was not marked by color ; 
nor by the ears, for there was no sound ; 
nor by the breath, for He mingled not with 
the air ; nor by the touch, for He was im- 
palpable. You ask, then, how I knew that 
He was present. Because He was a quick- 
ening power. As soon as He entered, He 
awoke my slumbering soul ; He moved and 
pierced my heart, which before was strange, 
stony, hard and sick, so that my soul could 



68 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

bless the Lord, and all that is within me 
praised His Holy N^ame." 

Cultivate the habit of speaking aloud to God, 
Not, perhaps, always, because our desires 
are often too sacred or deep to be put into 
words. But it is well to acquire the habit 
of speaking to God as to a present friend 
whilst sitting in the house or walking by 
the wa}^ Seek the habit of talking things 
over with God — thy letters, thy plans, thy 
hopes, thy mistakes, thy sorrows and sins. 
Things look very differently when brought 
into the calm light of His presence. One 
cannot talk long with God aloud without 
feeling that He is near. 

Meditate much upon the Word. This is the 
garden where the Lord God walks, the 
temple where He dwells, the presence- 
chamber where He holds court, and is 
found by those who seek Him. It is 
through the word that we feed upon the 
Word. And He said: ^^He that eateth 
My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth 
in Me and I in him." 

Be diligent in Christian work. The place 
of prayer is indeed the place of His mani- 
fested presence. But that presence would 
fade from it were we to linger there after 
the bell of duty had rung for us below. 
But we shall ever meet it as we go about 
our necessary work ; '^ Thou meetest him 



IN THE SECRET OF HIS PRESENCE. 69 

that worketh righteousness.'^ As we go 
forth to our daily tasks the angel of His 
presence comes to greet us, and turns to 
go at our side. ^^ Go ye," said the Master. 
'' Lo I am with you all the days." JS'ot 
only in temple courts, or in sequestered 
glens, or in sick rooms, but in the round 
of daily duty, in the common-places of life, 
on the dead levels of existence, we may be 
ever in the secret of His Presence, and 
shall be able to say with Elijah before 
Ahab, and Gabriel to Zacharias, ^^ I stand 
in the presence of God " (1 Kings xvii. 1 ; 
Lukei. 19). 

Let us cultivate the habit of recognizing 
the Presence of God. '-'- Blessed is the man 
whom Thou choosest, and causest to ap- 
proach unto Thee, that He may dwell in 
Thy courts." There is no life like this. 
To feel that God is with us. That He 
never leads us through a place too narrow 
for Him to pass as well. That we can 
never be lonely again, never for a single 
moment. That we are beset by Him be- 
hind and before, and covered by His hand. 
That He could not be nearer to us, even if 
we were in heaven itself. To have Him 
as Friend, and Eeferee, and Counsellor, 
and Guide. To realize that there is never 
to be a Jericho in our lives without the 
presence of the Captain of the Lord's host, 



70 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIEE. 

with those invisible but mighty legions, 
before whose charge all walls must fall 
down. What wonder that the saints of 
old waxed valiant in fight as they heard 
Him say : ^^ I am with thee ; I will never 
leave nor forsake thee." Begone fear and 
sorrow and dread of the dark valley ! 
^^ Thou shalt hide me in the secret of Thy 
Presence from the pride of man ; Thou 
shalt keep me secretly in a pavilion from 
the strife of tongues." 



The Secret 



CHRIST'S Indwelling 



THE SECRET OF CHRIST'S IN- 
DWELLING. 

IT is meet that the largest church in the 
greatest Gentile city in the world 
should be dedicated to the Apostle 
Paul J for Gentiles are under a great obli- 
gation to him as the Apostle of the Gen- 
tiles. It is to him that we owe, under the 
Spirit of God, the unveiling of two great 
mysteries, which specially touch us as 
Gentiles. 

The first of these, glorious as it is, we 
cannot now stay to discuss, though it 
wrought a revolution when first preached 
and maintained by the Apostle in the face 
of the most strenuous opposition. Till 
then. Gentiles were expected to become 
Jews before they were Christians, and to 
pass through the synagogue to the church. 
But he showed that this was not needful, 
and that Gentiles stood on the same level 
as Jews with respect to the privileges of 
the gospel — fellow-heirs and fellow-mem- 
bers of the body, and fellow-partakers of 



74 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

the promise in Christ Jesus through the 
gospel (Eph. iii. 6). 

The second^ however, well deserves our 
further thought, for if only it could be 
realized by the children of God, they would 
begin to live after so Divine a fashion as 
to still the enemy and avenger, and to re- 
peat in some small measure the life of 
Jesus on the earth. 

This mystery is that the Lord Jesus is will- 
ing to dwell within the Gentile heart. That He 
should dwell in the heart of a child of 
Abraham was deemed a marvelous act of 
condescension ; but that He should find 
a home in the heart of a Gentile was in- 
credible. This mistake was, however, dis- 
sipated before the radiant revelation of 
truth made to him who, in his own judg- 
ment, was not meet to be called an Apostle, 
because he had persecuted the Church of 
God. God was pleased to make known 
through him *^the riches of the glory of 
this mystery among the Gentiles ; which is 
Christ in you, the hope of glory '' fCoL 
1.27). 

" Master, where dwellest Thou? ^^ they 
asked of old. And in reply Jesus led 
them from the crowded Jordan bank to the 
slight tabernacle of woven osiers where He 
temporarily lodged. But if we address 
the same question to Him now, He will 



SECRET OF CHRIST'S INDWELLING, 75 

point, not to the high and lofty dome of 
heaven, not to the splendid structure of 
stone or marble, but to the happy spirit that 
loves, trusts, and obeys Him. *^ Behold, '' 
saith He, ^' I stand at the door and knock. 
If any man hear My voice, and open the 
door, I will come in to him.'' ^^ We will 
come," He said, including His Father with 
Himself, ^^ and make our abode with him.'^ 
He promised to be within each believer as 
a tenant in a house ; as sap in the branch ; 
as life-blood and life-energy in each mem- 
ber, however feeble, of the body. 

I. — The Mystery. Christ is in the be- 
liever. He indwells the heart by faith, as 
the sun indwells the lowliest flowers that 
unfurl their petals and bare their hearts to 
his beams. Not because we are good. Not 
because we are trying to be whole-hearted 
in our consecration. Not because we keep 
Him by the tenacity of our love. But be- 
cause we believe, and, in believing, have 
thrown open all the doors and windows of 
our nature. And He has come in. 

He probably came in so quietly that we 
failed to detect His entrance. There was 
no footfall along the passage ; the chime of 
the golden bells at the foot of His priestly 
robe did not betray Him ; He stole in on 
the wing of the morning, or like the noise- 
lessness with which nature arises from her 



76 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

winter's sleep and arrays herself in the 
robes which her Creator has prepared for 
her. But this is the way of Christ. He 
does not strive, nor cry, nor lift up or 
cause His voice to be heard. His tread is 
so light that it does not break bruised 
reeds, His breath so soft that it can re- 
illumine dying sparks. Do not be sur- 
prised, therefore, if you cannot tell the day 
or the hour when the Son of Man came to 
dwell within you. Only know that He has 
come. '' Know ye not as to your own 
selves, that Jesus Christ is in you ? unless 
ye be reprobate'' (2 Cor. xiii. 5). 

It is very wonderful. Yes ; the heavens, 
even the heavens of heavens, with all their 
light and glory, alone seem worthy of Him. 
Eut even there He is not more at home 
than He is with the humble and contrite 
spirit that simply trusts in Him. In His 
earthly life He said that the Father dwelt 
in Him so really that the words He spake 
and the works He did were not His own, 
but His Father's. And He desires to be in 
us as His Father was in Him, so that the 
outgoings of our life may be channels 
through which He, hidden within, may 
pour Himself forth upon men. 

It is not generally recognized. It is not ; 
though that does not disprove it. We fail 
to recognize many things in ourselves and 



SECRET OF CHRIST'S INDWELLING. 77 

in nature around, which are nevertheless 
true. But there is a reason why many 
whose natures are certainly the temple of 
Christ, remain ignorant of the presence of 
the wonderful Tenant that sojourns within. 
He divells so deep. Below the life of the 
body, which is as the curtain of the tent \ 
below the life of the soul, where thought 
and feeling, judgment and imagination, 
hope and love, go to and fro, ministering 
as white-stoled priests in the holy place ; 
below the play of light and shade, resolu- 
tion and will, memory and hope, the per- 
petual ebb and flow of the tides of self-con- 
sciousness, there, through the Holy Spirit, 
Christ dwells, as of old the Shechinah 
dwelt in the Most Holy Place, closely 
shrouded from the view of man. 

It is comparatively seldom that we go 
into these deeper departments of our being. 
We are content to live the superficial life 
of sense. We eat, we drink, we sleep ; we 
give ourselves to enjoy the lust of the flesh, 
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life ; 
we fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the 
mind. Or we abandon ourselves to the 
pursuit of knowledge and culture, of 
science and art ; we reason, speculate, 
argue ; we make short incursions into the 
realm of morals, that sense of right and 
wrong which is part of the make-up of men. 



78 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

But we have too slight an acquaintance 
with the deeper and more mysterious 
chamber of the spirit. Now this is why 
the majority of believers are so insensible 
of their Divine and wonderful Eesident, 
who makes the regenerated spirit His 
abode. 

It is to be accepted by faith. We repeat here 
our constant mistake about the things of 
God. We try to feel them. If we feel 
them, we believe them ; otherwise we take 
no account of them. We reverse the Di- 
vine order. We say, feeling, faith, FACT. 
God says, FACT, faitb^, feeling. With Him 
feeling is of small account — He only asks 
us to be willing to accept His own Word, 
and to cling to it because He has spoken it, 
in entire disregard of what we may feel. 

I am distinctly told that Christ, though 
He is on the Throne in His ascended glory, 
is also within me by the Holy Ghost. I 
confess I do not feel him there. Often 
amid the assault of temptation or the fury 
of the storm that sweeps over the surface 
of my nature, I cannot detect His form or 
hear Him say, ^' It is I.'' But I dare to 
believe He is there : not without me, but 
within ; not as a transient sojourner for a 
night, but as a perpetual inmate : not al- 
tered by my changes from earnestness to 
lethargy, from the summer of love to the 



SECRET OF CHRIST'S INDWELLING. 79 

winter of despondency, but always and un- 
changeably the same. And I say again 
and again, '^ Jesus, Thou art here. I am 
not worthy that Thou shouldest abide un- 
der my roof; but Thou hast come. Assert 
Thyself. Put down all rule, and author- 
ity, and power. Come out of Thy secret 
chamber, and possess all that is within me, 
that it may bless Thy holy name." 

Catherine of Siena at one time spent three 
days in a solitary retreat, praying for a 
greater fullness and joy of the Divine pres- 
ence. Instead of this, it seemed as though 
legions of wicked spirits assailed her with 
blasphemous thoughts and evil suggestions. 
At length, a great light appeared to de- 
scend from above. The devils fled, and 
the Lord Jesus conversed with her. Cath- 
erine asked Him, ^' Lord, where wert Thou 
when my heart was so tormented?'^ ^^I 
was in thy heart,'' He answered. ^^O 
Lord, Thou art everlasting truth,'' she re- 
plied, "and I humbly bow before Thy 
word ; but how can I believe that Thou 
wast in my heart when it was filled with 
such detestable thoughts?" ^^Did these 
thoughts give thee pleasure or pain? " He 
asked. "• An exceeding pain and sadness," 
was her reply. To whom the Lord said, 
'' Thou wast in woe and sadness because I 
was in the midst of thy heart. My pres- 



80 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

ence it was which rendered those thoughts 
insupportable to thee. When the period 
I had determined for the duration of the 
combat had elapsed, I sent forth the beams 
of My light, and the shades of hell were 
dispelled, because they cannot resist that 
light." 

II. — The Glory OF this Mystery. When 
God's secrets break open they do so in 
glory. The wealth of the root hidden in 
the ground is revealed in the hues of or- 
chid or scent of rose. The hidden beauty 
of a beam of light is unraveled in the 
sevenfold color of the rainbow. The swarm- 
ing, infinitesimal life of Southern seas 
breaks into waves of phosphorescence when 
cleft by the keel of the ship. And when- 
ever the unseen world has revealed itself 
to mortal eyes it has been in glory. It was 
especially so at the Transfiguration, when 
the Lord's nature broke from the strong 
restraint within which He confined it and 
revealed itself to the eye of man. '' His 
face did shine as the sun, and His garments 
became white as the light. ' ' 

So when we accept the fact of His exis- 
tence within us deeper than our own, and 
make it one of the aims of our life to draw 
on it and develop it, we shall be conscious 
of a glory transfiguring our life and irradi- 
ating ordinary things, such as will make 



SECRET OF CHRIST'S INDWELLING. 81 

earth, with its commonest engagements, 
like as the vestibule of heaven. 

The wife of Jonathan Edwards had been 
the subject of great fluctuations in religious 
experience and frequent depression, till she 
came to the point of renouncing the world, 
and yielding herself up to be possessed by 
these mighty truths. But so soon as this 
was the case, a marvelous change took 
place. She began to experience a constant, 
uninterrupted rest ; sweet peace and seren- 
ity of soul; a continual rejoicing in all the 
works of Grod^s hands, whether of nature 
or of daily providence ; a wonderful access 
to God by prayer, as it were seeing Him 
and immediately conversing with Him ; all 
tears wiped away ; all former troubles and 
sorrows of life forgotten, excepting grief 
for past sins and for the dishonor done to 
Christ in the world ; a daily sensible doing 
and suflfering everything for God, and doing 
all with a continual uninterrupted cheer- 
fulness, peace, and joy. 

Such glory — the certain pledge of the 
glory to be revealed — is within reach of 
each reader of these lines who will dare 
day by day to reckon that Christ lives 
within, and will be content to die to the 
energies and promptings of the self-life so 
that there may be room for the Christ- 
life to reveal itself. ^^ I have been cruel- 



82 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

fied,'' said the greatest human teacher of 
this Divine art ; ^^ Christ liveth in me; I 
live by faith in the Son of God.'' 

III. — The Eiches of the Glory of this 
Mystery. When this mystery, or secret, 
of the Divine life in man is apprehended 
and made use of, it gives great wealth to 
life. If all the treasures of wisdom, 
knowledge, power, and grace reside in 
Jesus, and He is become the cherished and 
honored resident of our nature, it is clear 
that we also must be greatly enriched. It 
is like a poor man having a millionaire 
friend come to live with him. 

There are riches of patience. Life is not 
easy to any of us. No branch escapes the 
pruning -knife ; no jewel the wheel ; no 
child the rod. People tyrannize over and 
vex us almost beyond endurance ; circum- 
stances strain us till the chords of our 
hearts threaten to snap ; our nervous sys- 
tem is overtaxed by the rush and compe- 
tition of our times. Indeed,we have need 
of patience ! 

Never to relax the self-watch ; never to 
indulge in unkind or thoughtless criticism 
of others ; never to utter the hasty word, 
or permit the sharp retort ; never to com- 
plain, except to God ; never to permit hard 
and distrustful thoughts to lodge within 
the soul ; to be always more thoughtful of 



SECRET OF CHRIST'S INDWELLING, 83 

others than of self; to detect the one blue 
spot in the clouded sky ; to be on the alert 
to find an excuse for those who are fro- 
ward and awkward ; to suffer the aches 
and pains, the privations and trials of life, 
sweetly, submissively, trustfully; to drink 
the bitter cup, with the eye fixed on the 
Father's face, without a murmur or com- 
plaint ; this needs patience, which mere 
stoicism could never give. 

And we cannot live such a life till we 
have learnt to avail ourselves of the riches 
of the indwelling Christ. The beloved 
Apostle speaks of being a partaker of the 
patience which is in Jesus (Eev. i. 9) . So 
may we be. That calm, unmurmuring, 
unreviling patience, which made the Lamb 
of God dumb before His shearers, is ours. 
Eobert Hall was once overheard saying, 
amid the heat of an argument, ^^ Calm me, 
O Lamb of God ! '' But we may go fur- 
ther, and say, ^^ Lord Jesus, let Thy pa- 
tience arise in me, as a spring of fresh 
water in a briny sea.'' 

There are riches of grace. Alone among 
the great cities of the world, Jerusalem 
had no river. But the glorious Lord was 
in the midst of her, and He became a place 
of broad rivers and streams, supplying 
from Himself all that rivers gave to cities, 
at the foot of whose walls the welcome 
waters lapped (Isa. xxxiii. 21). 



84 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE, 

This is a picture of what we have, who 
dare to reckon on the indwelling of ^^ our 
glorious Lord/' as King, Lawgiver, and 
Saviour. He makes all grace to abound 
towards us, so that we have a sufiiciency 
for all emergencies, and can abound in 
every good work. In His strength, ever 
rising up within us, we are able to do as 
much as those who are dowered with the 
greatest mental and natural gifts, and we 
escape the temptations to vainglory and 
pride by which they are beset. 

The grace of purity and self-control, of 
fervent prayer and understanding in the 
Scriptures, of love for men and zeal for 
God, of lowliness and meekness, of gentle- 
ness and goodness — all is in Christ; and 
if Christ is in us, all is ours also. Oh that 
we would dare to believe it, and draw on 
it, letting down the pitcher of faith into 
the deep well of Christ's indwelling opened 
within us by the Holy Ghost ! 

It is impossible, in these brief limits, to 
elaborate further this wonderful thought. 
But if only we would meet every call, diffi- 
culty, and trial, not saying, as we so often 
do, *T shall never be able to go through it," 
but saying, ^^I cannot ; but Christ is in me, 
and He can,'' we should find that all trials 
were intended to reveal and unfold the 
wealth hidden within us, until Christ was 



SECRET OF CHRIST'S INDWELLING. 85 

literally formed within us, and His life 
manifested in our mortal body (2 Cor. iv. 
10). 

(1) Be still each day for a short time, 
sitting before God in meditation, and ask 
the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the truth 
of Christ's indwelling. Ask God to be 
pleased to make known to you what is the 
riches of the glory of this mystery (Col. i. 
27). 

(2) Reverence your nature as the temple 
of the indwelling Lord. As the Eastern 
unbares his feet, and the Western his head, 
on entering the precincts of a temple, so 
be very careful of aught that would defile 
the body or soil the soul. No beasts must 
herd in the temple courts. Get Christ to 
drive them out. ^^ Know ye not that ye 
are a temple of God ? The temple of God 
is holy, and such are ye.'' 

(3) Hate your own life. ^ '- If any man 
hateth not his own life," said our Lord, 
^^he cannot be My disciple" (Luke xiv. 
26). And the word translated ^^ life " is 
^oiil^ the seat and center of the self-life 
with its restless energies and activities, its 
choices and decisions, its ceaseless striv- 
ings and independence and leadership. 
This is the greatest hindrance to our en- 
joyment of the indwelling Christ. If we 
will acquire the habit of saying ^^No," not 



86 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

only to our bad but our good self; if we 
will daily deliver ourselves up to death 
for Jesus' sake ; if we will take up our 
cross and follow the Master, though it be 
to His grave, we shall become increasingly 
conscious of being possessed by a richer, 
deeper, Diviner life than our own. 



With Christ in Separation 



WITH CHRIST IN SEPARATION. 

THE Bible rings with the cry for sepa- 
ration. Those words, Divide ! Di- 
vide ! so often heard in the House of 
Commons, compelling every man to take a 
side, speak through its pages, from those 
earliest verses which tell how God divided 
the light from the darkness. 

This call came to Abraham, bidding him 
get out from country and kindred and 
father's house ; to Moses as the bugle-note 
of the Exodus ; to the tribe of Levi, mus- 
tering them at the gate of the camp ; to the 
children of Israel, as they languished in 
Babylon, bidding them return to their 
fatherland ; and along the resounding 
aisles of the New Testament Church, these 
words re-echo : "• Come out from among 
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, 
and touch not the unclean thing ; and I 
will receive you, and will be a Father unto 
you ; " ^^ Come out of her, My people, that 
ye be not partakers of her sins, and that 
ye receive not of her plagues ' ^ (2 Cor. vi. 
17, and Eev. xviii. 4). 



90 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE, 

But what is that separation to 
WHICH WE ARE CALLED ? There are many 
counterfeits, against which we do well to 
be on our guard. It is not the separation of 
the monk. This has ever fascinated noble 
minds. For like-minded men to go off to- 
gether to some sequestered vale, protected 
from the storms that sweep across the 
world ; to build for themselves homes and 
temples, and mingle their toils with holy 
meditation and prayer ; welcoming the 
daybreak with matins, and greeting with 
vesper hymns the first couriers of the 
starry host; such was the dream that 
stirred the imagination of saintly hearts in 
the Middle Ages. And something like 
this filled the Mayflower with the Pilgrim 
Fathers, and peopled the Black Forest 
with colonies of Moravian settlers. 

But such separation, however attractive, 
cannot be the separation of Christ. He 
solemnly prayed that we might not be 
taken out of the world ; yea, He expressly 
sent us into the world. And what would 
become of it if we were all to withdraw 
from its life ? Night without a star ; a 
rock-bound coast without a lighthouse 
beam raying out into the murky gloom ; a 
vessel drifting on the rocks without a 
watch on deck ; a carcase corrupting in 
midsummer without salt ! No, this can- 



WITH CHRIST IN SEPARA TION. 91 

not be the separation to which we are 
called. 

It is not the separation of the Pharisee. The 
Pharisees held that a man could be re- 
ligious without being good. He might be 
full of extortion and excess, if only he 
washed the outside of cup and platter ; full 
of dead men's bones, if only he appeared 
clean as a white-washed sepulchre. In 
their judgment, therefore, impurity was 
not a matter of inward evil, but communi- 
cated by a touch. To be touched by a man 
who had not washed since eating would be 
sufficient to defile the stately Pharisee. 

But our Lord forever broke down these 
unrighteous distinctions. He taught not 
only by speech, but by action, that im- 
purity is not communicated by contact, 
but is nurtured in the heart, and bred in 
act and speech. He did not wash after 
His meals ; He ate with publicans and sin- 
ners ; He let a fallen woman weep at His 
feet ; He touched the bleared eye of blind- 
ness, the tied tongue of dumbness, the 
polluted flesh of the leper. Repeatedly we 
are told that He stretched forth His hand 
and touched. 

And is not this what the world wants ? 
It needs hand-help — the touch of the 
King. We shall never be able to help 
men by simply looking on them or exhort- 



92 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

ing them ; we must touch them. Those 
lily-white delicate jeweled hands which 
may turn this page must be yielded to 
Christ, that He may use them and work 
through them His miracles of mercy in our 
weary age. And such contact will not de- 
file. Pitch is a disinfectant ; so far from 
defiling, it will tend to promote our love 
fi^r purity, when we dare the contact, in 
the name of Christ and for the welfare of a 
dying world. 

It is not the separation of the Stoic. The 
Puritans were not entirely free from this 
mistake. For them the world was a great 
howling wilderness; laughter and mirth 
signs of an unregenerate soul ; their scheme 
of life too narrow and severe to admit of 
those lighter and softer passages which re- 
lieve its strain and draw out the tenderer 
sentiments of human hearts. 

Against this, Christ's life was a per- 
petual protest. He mingled with wedding 
guests, smiled at the children as they 
played in the market-places and called to 
their fellows, directed the crowds to the 
beauties of the flowers and the habits of 
the birds, noticed the sunrise hues and 
evening tints, and lived as a man amongst 
men. However severe He might be to the 
formalists of His time. He had ever a warm 
heart towards what was natural and hu- 



WITH CHRIST IN SEPARA TION. 93 

man. Let us not forget the command^ 
Thou shall rejoice in every good thing which the 
Lord thy God giveth thee, and let us cultivate 
the habit of extracting joy and blessing 
from all the innocent and beautiful things 
around us. 

The necessity of answering this 
Question is really urgent. It is a 
pressing question. Hundreds of young 
Christians are asking what they should do 
or avoid ; and in so many cases, for want 
of a clear principle, begin to drift; the 
bloom passes off the basket of summer 
fruit, and when once gone, can never be 
replaced. It is a pertinent question, espe- 
cially at those seasons of the year wheu 
the dark evenings afford such abundant 
opportunities for the dance, the ball, the 
theatre, and the opera. It is also a per- 
plexing question, because good people are 
found on such opposite sides, and give an- 
swers, wide as the poles asunder, to the 
various questions with which they are 
plied. Some forbid the theatre, but allow 
the opera. Some have no objection to the 
children's pantomime, but are horrified at 
the proposal to see an ordinary play. 
Some would go to see Shakespearean plays^ 
but would not go to others. Some dis- 
tinguish between a dance and a ball. 

What is the result ? Christian ministers 



94 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

frequent theatres. Professors give danc- 
ing-parties not far removed from balls. 
Funds for religious purposes are raised by- 
private theatricals. Our young people are 
perpetually loosening the restraints by 
which they are held, pressing outwards the 
fences which divide them from the world, 
taking in new lengths of territory, and 
fretting against restraint. 

Are there no self-acting principles, so 
that each individual soul may decide for 
itself these difficult, doubtful, and perilous 
problems which are so incessantly crop- 
ping up in all lives, either in one form or 
another ? There are, and the following are 
surely amongst them ; and, like the spear 
of the seraph Ithuriel, will indicate by a 
touch the evil that may lurk under inno- 
cent appearances : — 

1 . — Beware of everything which is Inconsistent 
with your Relationship to the Lord Jesus, What 
is that relationship? And, of course, we 
are dealing here with the case of those 
alone who are His, or who are desirous of 
being identified with Him, both here and 
hereafter. 

We are His servants; bought by His blood, 
sworn to loyal allegiance. Is it quite con- 
sistent, then, to be mingling with the 
amusements and gaieties of the world, 
which is of the same spirit to-day as when 



WITH CHRIST IN SEPARA TION. 95 

it cast Him out of its camp and crucified 
Him ? It has an ugly look about it when 
loyal soldiers fraternize in the carousals of 
I'cbels. 

We are His members ; bone of His bone, 
flesh of His flesh, whom He nourishes and 
cherishes. Our Head is already passed 
through the grave on to resurrection- 
ground, where He is gathering around 
Him His own — His kindred. Is it not in- 
congruous for the Head to be on one side 
of the grave and the members on the other? 
Is it not altogether unbecoming to pretend 
to be one with Him in His risen glory, 
whilst we are practically as close as we 
dare in our contact with the world which 
He has left ? 

We are His Bride; He, the Heavenly 
Bridegroom, is one with us in a union 
which has no analogy, save that of wed- 
lock, where heart locks with heart. Is it 
consistent with fidelity to Him for us to 
dally with the world, whose hands were 
imbued with His blood? What did the 
people of Scotland think of the familiarities 
of marriage between Mary Queen of Scots 
and Both well, the murderer of her first 
husband, Darnley? 

Surely the Cross, with outstretched 
arms, bars the bridge between us and the 
world ; and we may cry with the Apostle, 



96 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

^ ' Far be it from me to glory, save in the 
Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through 
which the world has been crucified unto 
me, and I unto the world.^' 

Whenever, then, there is any doubt as 
to whether it be right to go to this place or 
that, bring the question beneath the light 
that streams from the Cross and from the 
Throne ; clear your heart and mind of all 
selfish aims and thoughts of what others 
may do or say ; let your eye be single to 
discern the will of the Lord ; ask what He 
would have you to do ; and before long the 
difficulties will roll up as quickly and 
noiselessly as the mists which fill the 
mountain valleys before the touch of the 
summer sun ; your whole body will be full 
of light ; you will even lose your taste for 
the things which once you loved ; and in 
the new-found ecstasy of the Living Wa- 
ter, welling up in your heart, you will be 
prepared to leave behind the water-pot on 
which you had been relying as the source 
of your life. 

2. — Beware of anything which the world itself 
would deem inconsistent. Though the world 
is not religious in our sense, yet it has a 
very keen appreciation of true Christianity, 
and a very high ideal of what Christians 
should be. And we may well arrest our 
steps when we are met with a surprised in- 



WITH CHRIST IN SEPARA TION. 97 

terrogation — ^^ What ! are you here? We 
didn't expect to see you ! " The very fuss 
which is made over us when we step over 
the line may well make us pause and ask 
whether we have not done something to for- 
feit the smile and '^ Well done " of Jesus. 
3. — Beware of anything tvhich would injure 
some weaker conscience. This is one of the 
most important considerations in Christian 
living. '' All things are law^ful to me, but 
all things are not expedient." And why 
are they not expedient ? It is inexpedient 
to do things w^hich may be harmless enough 
in themselves, and which you may feel able 
to do with impunity, if in doing them you 
lead others to do them also, not because 
they feel a.t ease, but simply because they 
are emboldened by your example, regard- 
ing you as further advanced than them- 
selves in the Christian life, and therefore a 
trustworthy guide. Estimate every action, 
not only as it is in itself, but as it is likely 
to be in its influence on others, lest you 
break down wholesome barriers, and place 
them in scenes of temptation which, how- 
ever, harmless to yourself, are perilous in 
the extreme to them. We have no right to 
lead our young children up perilous passes, 
where we may clamber with clear head and 
nimble foot, but where their inexperienced 
steps may slide into the abyss. 



98 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

4. — Beware of scenes and companionships 
which dull your spiritual life. Who is there 
that does not long for a life on fire ? But 
how can we possibly look for such a thing 
if we are persistently exposing ourselves to 
influences which choke and repress it and 
damp it down? There are some scenes 
which seem incompatible with earnest pray- 
er and Bible study, ere we retire to rest ; 
which lower the inner temperature ; which! 
leave an ill-flavor in the mouth ; which 
poison the young life, as the noxious gas- 
fumes poison the life of flowers and plants. 
From all such scenes we do well to refrain 
our feet. 

5. — Beware of any society in which you feel 
compelled to put a bushel over your testimony. 
We must shine as lights in the world. And 
the most necessary condition in a light- 
house lamp is its permanence. If it shines 
at one time, and is hidden at another, now 
flashing afar over the dark seething waves, 
and then standing somber and obscure on 
the beetling clifls, of what use is it ? It is 
worse than useless. And if we are to be of 
any real use in this world, our testimony 
for Jesus must be maintained, in season and 
out of season, in storm and sunshine, al- 
ways and everywhere. But if, before going 
into any scene or fellowship, you have to 
remind yourself that you must not touch 



WITH CHRIST IN SEPARA TION. 99 

on any of those subjects which are dearest 
to your soul, you may well fear lest you are 
trespassing on forbidden ground. Go nowhere 
that you cannot take Jesus with you, and ask His 
blessing before going, '^ Do all in the glory of 
God.'' 

All this will involve a hard fight, perse- 
cution, and misunderstanding. It is thus, 
however, that we prove our lineage with 
the noble martyr-spirits of the past. See 
that young girl, in the days of Diocletian, 
beautiful and richly dressed, standing be- 
fore the altar, with the judge on the one 
side, her lover on the other, her com- 
panions grouped around. If she will but 
throw a few grains of incense on the brazier 
she shall be spared from cruel death and 
given back to love and friends and life. 
But not a grain is cast upon the expectant 
flames, and she is ruthlessly led oii' to die 
for Him whom she loves better than all. 
Was she not consistent ? Would you not 
have done the same ? Then do the same 
now, and dare to be consistent to your 
lover, Christ. 

Sometimes we may be placed in such a 
position, that we have no alternative than 
to go into scenes which, for ourselves, we 
would not choose. For instance, when the 
worldly mother of a Christian girl insists 
on her accompanying her into society. 



100 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

where there is nothing positively sinful^ 
but much that is light and thoughtless, it 
would evidently be her duty to go. You 
may ask to be excused, but if your plea is 
not allowed, you must go, unless conscience 
positively forbids, and Christ will go with 
you, keeping your heart. 

There are many Compensations. This 
is the only mje course. The world is so 
attractive, and so appeals to our weak- 
nesses, that if we once launch upon its 
waters, they will insensibly sweep us to- 
ward the rush of the whirlpool, and we 
shall go down into the deep, dark abyss. 
It is the only strong course. He who would 
lift me must stand above me. Who did most 
for Sodom : Lot who went down into it and 
sat in the gate, or Abraham who got up 
early to the place where he stood before the 
Lord ? The old heathen games were swept 
off the world, not because the early Christ- 
ians went to them, but because they stopped 
away. The brutal sports of the last cen- 
tury fled away, not because the Methodists 
patronized them, but because they abstain- 
ed from them. And the moral pests of 
modern society will never succumb until 
good people withdraw both their patronage 
and support. This is the only blessed course, 
because God's promise of being a Father 
and of receiving us is entirely dependent on 



WITH CHRIST IN SEPARATION. 101 

our oomplying with His conditions. It is 
when father and mother forsake that the 
Lord gathers us ; when the synagogue 
casts us out that Jesus finds us ; when 
heart and flesh fail that He is the strength 
of our heart and our portion forever. 

Dare to go outside the camp, at the risk 
of being counted singular and unfriendly ! 
Let the world treat you as it did your Lord. 
Why should the servant be fawned on and 
flattered where the Master was crucified as 
a felon? Lie in His grave, and thus you 
shall know the joy of His Easter life, the 
sweetness of His love, and the closeness of 
His friendship, which would compensate 
for a thousand deaths. To know the King 
you must share His exile. 

Gather ye, gather ye, out to the lone Cave 
of Adullam, and around the standard of 
the exiled Prince ; and when He comes 
again in triumph to be crowned with the 
diadem of universal empire, ye shall appear 
in His train and by His side, confessed and 
acknowledged as those of whom He has no 
reason to be ashamed. 



I 



The Filling 



, Holy Spirit 

I 



I 



THE FILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

COMING suddenly down to Ephesus, 
the Apostle Paul, as was his wont, 
sought for any Christians that might 
be gathered within that vast center of 
heathenism. His search was finally re- 
warded by the discovery of twelve men, 
meeting probably in some obscure room, 
and exercising no influence on the vast 
idolatrous city out of which the grace of 
God had drawn them. His first question 
was a very searching one. Without pre- 
liminaries he went to the point. Convinced 
that there must be some reason why they 
did not exercise a greater power on the 
populations around them, he set himself to 
probe the cause ; and shrewdly guessed it in 
the searching inquiry: ' ^ Did ye receive 
the Holy Spirit when ye believed ? ' ' (Acts 
xix. 2, E. v.). 

The Apostle surely did not mean to ask 
whether they had received the special gifts 
of the Spirit. Their reply at least does not 
indicate that they so understood him. He 
wanted only to learn whether they had re- 

105 



106 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

ceived that filling of the Holy Spirit which 
was the main feature of Pentecost (Acts ii. 
4, vi. 3, xiii. 52). 

^^ Received we the Holy Spirit when we 
believed ! How could we have faith, except 
it were given us by the Holy Spirit ?' ' might 
have been the reply of the startled men. 
^ ^Granted, '' would the Apostle answer. 
^^ISTo man can call Jesus Lord except by 
the Holy Spirit; certainly the Holy Spirit 
has been at work within you, else ye were 
none of Christ's ; but there is an experience 
altogether beyond and above that initial 
step by which the Holy Spirit first reveals sin 
and Christ, and it is for lack of this that 
your testimony is so inoperative, and your 
lives so destitute of fire." 

And as we look back upon this episode 
across the centuries, we are convinced that 
it suggests the reason why so many Chris- 
tians around us acknowledge their religion 
a failure, whilst the world mocks at their 
inability to exercise the devils which pos- 
sess it. 

It is of course true that the Holy Ghost 
is the sole agent in conversion, becoming 
the occupant of the temple, which is pre- 
sented to Him by the nature of man (1 Cor. 
vi. 19) . And it is equally clear, that the 
Holy Spirit as a person enters the newly re- 
generated heart. But there is a vast dif- 



\ 



FILLING OF THE HOL V SPIRIT, 107 

ference between having the Holy Ghost and 
being filled by Him. In the one case, He 
may be compared to a mighty man that 
cannot save, relegated to an obscure corner 
of the heart, whilst the larger part of the 
nature is excluded from His gracious in- 
fluences. In the other. He is a welcome 
guest, to whom every part of the being is 
thrown open, and who pervades it with the 
freedom of the balmy air of summer, sweep- 
ing through open windows, breathing 
through long corridors, and carrying into 
further recesses the fragrance of a thou- 
sand flowers. 

There are a great many Christians who 
undoubtedly received the Holy Spirit at the 
earliest moment of faith; indeed, their faith 
is the result of His work; but they have 
never gone further; they have never yielded 
their whole nature to His indwelling; they 
have had no further experience of His 
Pentecostal Filling. 

It is not difficult to point this contrast 
by analogies drawn from the Word of God. 
May we not reverently say that the minis- 
try of our blessed Lord Himself owed much 
of its marvelous power to that moment 
when, although filled with the Holy Spirit 
from His birth. He was afresh anointed at 
the waters of baptism? With marked em- 
phasis it is said He was filled with the 



108 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

Spirit (Luke iv. 1), and returned in the 
power of the Spirit unto Galilee (ver. 14) , 
a.nd stood up in the synagogue of His 
native town, claiming the ancient prophecy , 
and declaring that the Spirit of God was 
upon Him (ver. 18) . His wondrous words 
and works are directly traced to the mar- 
velous operation of the Holy Ghost upon 
His human life (Acts x. 38). 

Remember also the vast alteration that 
came over the Apostles and other followers 
of Jesus Christ on the Day of Pentecost 
and after ! Before that day, they cowered 
like sheep ; when it came, they stood like 
lions at bay. Before it, their bosoms 
heaved with tumultuous passions of rivalry 
and suspicion and desire for earthly power ; 
afterwards, each thought the other better 
than himself, and sought to excel in 
humble ministry to the saints. Peter 
charged home upon the crowd the murder 
of the Son of God, until the rabble became 
a congregation, and thousands cried for 
mercy. Can you recognize in him the 
timid son of Jonas who dared not face the 
question of a servant-girl? And what 
made the difference? From the first they 
had enjoyed the teaching and grace of the 
Holy Spirit. Though not given in fullness 
(John vii. 39), yet He was working on 
human hearts (Luke ii. 25-27). Indeed, 



FILLING OF THE HOL V SPIRIT, 10^ 

our Lord had breathed on them and said^ 
'^Eeceiveye the Holy Ghost" (John xx. 
22), before He went on to say, '^ Ye shall 
be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many 
days hence." What does this mean, ex- 
cept that those w^ho have already received 
the Spirit, in a lower measure, may look 
for and receive His gracious filling — grace 
on grace, wave on wave, flood on flood ? 

The same truth is taught by contrast be- 
tween Romans vii., an arid wilderness, 
marked by one or tw^o green spots, and 
Romans viii., a very garden of the Lord^ 
full of murmuring streams from Lebanon^ 
bringing fertility and beauty into all 
hearts, lives, homes, and churches where 
they come. The one chapter describes a 
life which lacks the fullness of the Spirit^ 
the other rings from end to end with men- 
tion of His person, offices, and work. 

Reader, can you not see here the reason 
of the failure and disappointment of your 
life? You are living experimentally on 
the other side of Pentecost. The Holy 
Ghost is in you, but He does not fill you. 
You are trying to live a Christian life in 
the neglect of the one power by which this- 
marvel can be achieved. What wonder 
that you fail, and are often inclined to 
give up in despair, because your ideal is so 
far beyond your reach ; or that your 



110 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

closest friends sadly contrast the luxuri- 
ance of your promises with the meagerness 
of your fruit ? It is hardly necessary to 
ask if you received the filling of the Holy 
Spirit when you believed. It is but too 
patent that you did not ; and if in this hour 
of unusual thoughtfulness you were led to 
see your position, and seek that holy 
filling which you may have, there is not 
the least doubt that you would suddenly 
rise up into an excellency of Christian 
living which would be as great a contrast 
to your past as sunlight to moonlight, and 
as the profusion of an autumn orchard to 
the bare and storm-swept trees of winter. 

This is the glorious meaning of the day 
of Pentecost ; it has put within the reach 
of all, of old men and children, of young 
men and maidens, that blessed filling of 
the Spirit which in former times was re- 
served for only a few of the most illustrious 
saints (Actsii. 17-18). 

Mark these several ways in which this filling 
of the Spirit would operate, 1. — You would 
get a new and vivid conception of the Lord Jesus. 
Is it not your chief complaint that His fig- 
ure is so indistinct, and that you are so 
unable to realize His presence ; the 
glimpses of His face few and far between, 
and your moments of true communion fit- 
ful? The reason is to be found in the 



FILLING OF THE HOL V SPIRIT, 111 

feebleness of the Spirit's action. It is His 
special function to take of the things of 
Christ, and to reveal them to us, and one 
chief symptom of His having filled the soul 
is that the soul luxuriates in a vivid and 
abiding recognition of the Lord's real and 
glorious presence. Nay, more, Christ 
dwells in us by the Holy Spirit, as the sun 
dwells in the world by the atmosphere 
vibrating in his beams (Eph. iii. 17). 

2. — You would obtain more constant victory 
owr sin. How many Christians complain 
of the uprisings of their old and depraved 
nature, which so rapidly responds to the 
suggestions of the tempter, betraying the 
continued presence in the heart of that 
self-principle which has been the cause of 
all the evil and misery of the world ! To 
cope with this is the enigma of many hearts, 
ambitious of saintliness ; and of how many 
is it the bitter regret that length of years 
and experience and incessant struggles, 
fail to give them victory ! This also is 
largely because there has been no deep ex- 
perience of the filling of the Holy Spirit. 

It is His special work to deal with these 
uprisings. Without Him they laugh us to 
scorn, as the tumultuous waves the injunc- 
tion of Canute ; but let Him occupy the 
heart in his Divine glory, and He lusts 
against the flesh, so that we may not do 



112 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

the things we would (Gal. v. 17). The 
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus 
makes us free from the law of sin and death 
which is in our members (Rom. viii. 2). 
There is no greater safeguard against im- 
purity and sin, than to reckon that the 
whole nature has now become the Temple 
of the Holy Spirit, and to trust Him to keep 
His own property absolutely for Himself 
(i Cor. vi. 19). 

3. — You would have a more unbrohen assur- 
ance of acceptance and adoption into the family 
of God, To ignore or lessen the work of 
the Spirit in the heart is to silence the one 
voice which witnesses with our spirits that 
we are born of God (Eom. viii. 15). What 
does the Apostle mean when he says, 
' ' After that ye believed ye were sealed 
with that holy Spirit of promise, which is 
the earnest of our inheritance ? ' ' Those 
words surely teach us that what the 
earnest penny is to the farm-laborer, what 
the first sod to the purchaser of Scotch 
estates, what the grapes of Eschol to the 
vintage of Palestine, of which they are the 
guarantee and the sample, — that the pres- 
ence of the Holy Spirit in the believer's 
heart is to the glorious inheritance reserv- 
ed for us in heaven. It stands to reason, 
therefore, that the strength and clearness 
of His witness will be in proportion to the 



FILLING OF THE HOL V SPIRIT, 113 

fullness of His indwelling. Let us do 
everything to increase and accentuate the 
power of this precious testimony to our 
childship. 

4. — You would obtain new power for service. 
It is said, that when the Apostles had 
prayed, the place where they met was 
shaken, ^' and they were all filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and spake the Word of God 
with boldness, and with great power gave 
they witness" (Acts iv. 31-33). Little 
enough power may have rested upon your 
work for God. You have waved the cen- 
ser between the living and the dead, and 
the plague has not stayed. You have 
spoken the old words that once acted as a 
charm, but no miracle of grace has follow- 
ed. You have plied the weary routine of 
work from year to year, without winning a 
single soul for the Master. Ah ! terrible 
waste of energy. Much as if a man were 
to try to turn a ponderous machine by hand 
instead of attaching it to the fly-wheel of a 
vast engine revolving rapidly but uselessly 
within his reach. 

The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of power, the 
dynamics of the kingdom of heaven, the 
energy of the life of God, which can alone 
vivify dead spirits. The more we have of 
this, the more certain we are of great 
spiritual results ; whilst, without this, we 



114 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

may sow mucli, but our seed will be lost, 
and the scanty ears of autumn fail to reward 
our toils. The life-giving Spirit must be 
with us in power, or we shall never see 
dead souls awake to the life of God under 
our word. 

5. — You would he heptin mind of your true 
attitude in Jesus. We forget so soon. In the 
onset of evil we do not recollect to look 
away to Him. Long periods of time pass 
during which we are but faintly conscious 
that we are God's adopted children, shar- 
ing the victory of our risen Lord, and des- 
tined to stand forever in the inner circle 
of the Throne. And this is because the 
Holj^ Ghost has so little power in our lives ; 
whereas if only we were filled with His in- 
dwelling, He would be in us as the Spirit 
of remembrance, bringing all things to our 
memory, and keeping us in the true posture 
of all holy souls (John xiv. 26) . 

I am not anxious here to distinguish be- 
tween the filling of the Holy Ghost and the 
baptism of fire. So far as I can understand 
it, they are synonymous. In Acts i. 5 our 
Lord said, '' Ye shall be baptized with the 
Holy Ghost not many days hence ; ' ' and 
in chap. ii. 4 we are told, ^' They were all 
filled with the Holy Ghost." So far as I 
can understand, therefore, they are one 
and the same thing, and the writer of the 



FILLING OF THE HOL V SPIRIT. 115 

Acts throughout prefers the word ^^ filling. ' ' 
It recurs like the chime of a peal of bells, 
borne by the fitful breeze across the valley 
of the centuries. In any case let us see to it 
that we know what the filling is ; it will 
be time enough then to discuss the baptism. 

Say not that this filling by the Spirit was 
for the first Christians and not for us. Cer- 
tainly His gifts were part of the special 
machinery needed to impress the Gentile 
world; but the filling of the Spirit is con- 
terminous with no one age. Alas! that 
many think that the Almighty, like some 
bankrupt builder, constructed the portico 
of His Church with marble, and has fin- 
ished it with common brick! What does 
the Apostle mean (Eph. v. 18) when he 
bids us ^^ Be filled with the spirit? " We 
appropriate the doctrines the exhortations, 
the mystic teachings of that glorious epistle. 
Why then should we overlook this distinct 
command, which demands the obedience of 
all to whom the epistle comes? Let us 
never forget also that God's biddings are 
His enablings, and that what He com- 
mands the universal Church He is prepared 
to accomplish for each individual member 
of it. 

^N'othing could be clearer than the an- 
nouncement of the Apostle Peter on the 
day of Pentecost, that the promise was not 



116 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

to themselves only, but to all that are afar o-^j 
even as many as the Lord our God shall call 
(Acts ii. 39). Have you been called, my 
reader to the grace of God? Then the 
promise of being filled is as much for you 
in the westering light of this age, as it was 
for those who lived in its silver dawn. 
Appropriate it. 

We must appropriate the filling power of the 
Holy Spirit as we do all Godh gifts by faith. 
Do not prepare yourself to receive it. Do 
not attempt a renovation of the inner life 
as the condition for His entrance, for your 
utmost preparations will be made in vain. 
Do not try to make room for Him. Simply 
be willing to yield your whole being to His 
grace, and believe that just as the earthly 
parent gives to the child all good and need- 
ful things as soon as the request is made, 
so will our Father in heaven give the fill- 
ing of the Spirit to each child that asks for 
it. Ask for it in humble consciousness of 
your own unworthiness, but with eager de- 
sire that you may be the better able to glor- 
ifj^ God. Wait in the surrender and still- 
ness of your heart, like that which hushed 
the Tabernacle before the ark, where Sam- 
uel slept. And believe that there and then 
God does keep His word with your soul, 
and that *^the Lord suddenly comes to His 
temple.' ' 



FILLING OF THE HOL V SPIRIT. 117 

Then rise up and go forth from your 
chamber, not trying to feel filled, but reck- 
oning that God has kept his word with you, 
and daring to believe it, though you may 
not be conscious of any emotional outburst. 
And you will find when you come to work 
or suffer or meet temptation, that there 
will be in you the consciousness of a power 
which you have never known before, and 
TN^hich will indicate the filling of the Holy 
Spirit. 

Bid remember it is not enough to be filled once 
Jor all Like the Apostles of old, we must 
seek perpetual refiUings. They w^ho were 
filled in the second chapter of Acts were 
filled again in the fourth. Happy is that 
man who never leaves his chamber in the 
morning without definitely seeking and re- 
ceiving the plenitude of the Spirit! He 
shall be a proficient scholar in God's school, 
for the anointing which he has received, like 
fresh oil, shall abide in him, and teach him 
all things. Above all, he will be taught 
the secret of abiding fellowship with Christ, 
for it is written, ^^As it hath taught you, ye 
shall abide in Him " (1 John ii. 27). 

It is all-important also to remember that just 
as a fire cannot be maintained without freshly 
heaped'Up fuel, so the energetic working of the 
Holy Sjyirit in human hearts is largely dependent 
on the daily devout study of the Word of God, 



118 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

It is through the word that the Spirit ef- 
fects the fullness of His work on those that 
receive Him. 

There is nothing more to be said now. It 
is doubtless true that we may be filled with 
the Holy Spirit from our conversion ; but 
since this is not the general experience of 
Christians, let us examine where we stand, 
and, if needs be, ask for that which might 
have been ours long years ago, if only we 
had sought it. 



The Secret of Power 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 

DO you not sometimes moan over your 
want of power ? You stand face to 
face with devil-tormented people, 
but you cannot cast the devil out. You 
feel that you ought to confess Christ in the 
workshop, the commercial room, the rail- 
way carriage, and the home, but your lips 
refuse to utter the message of the heart. 
Yes, and worse than all, you are constantly 
being overcome by besetting sins, which 
carry you whither you would not. There 
is a lamentable lack of power amongst us. 
I*^ot many can roll back the tide of battle 
from the gates, nor wield the weapons, 
which were child's play to the saints of 
olden times. 

I learnt a lesson about this the other 
day in my Firewood Factory, where we 
provide employment for men and boys. 
We use a circular saw for cutting through 
the beams of solid timber. Until recently, 
this saw was worked by a crank, turned 
by twelve to fifteen men. But it was slow, 
hard, and expensive work. At last we 

121 



122 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

were driven to something more expeditious 
and bought a gas-engine. And now the 
saw, driven by this engine, does in two or 
three hours as much work as it did for- 
merly in a day, and at less than a tenth 
of the cost. It is the same saw, but the 
diflference lies in the power that drives it. 
It used to be driven by hand-power, now it 
is driven by an equivalent for steam, and 
the only thing we need to do is to keep the 
connecting band tight. 

It is not a question as to our abilities or 
qualifications, but of the power behind us. 
If that is nothing more than human, it is 
not surprising that the results are miser- 
ably poor. But if we link ourselves to the 
Eternal Power of God, nothing will be im- 
possible to us. ^'All things are possible to 
him that believeth.'' The great matter is 
to see that the connecting band of Faith is 
in good use. Apart from the vine the 
branch can do nothing. 

But where can I find the Power of God? 

Jesus Christ is the reservoir in which the 
Power of God is stored. ^^It pleased the 
Father that in Him should all fullness 
dwell.'' All power is His. He would not 
receive it from the devil on the mountain 
of temptation, but He laid claim to it on 
the mountain of Ascension. Listen to His 
majestic words, ^^AU power is given me 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 123 

in heaven and on earth. '^ In that august 
moment He united in Himself the power, 
which He had as the Son of man, with the 
power He had with the Father before the 
world was. And now all power resides in 
Him forever more, not for Himself only, 
but for us. 

How may I get this power for myself? 

By faith. Each time you are face to 
face with some difficulty, or temptation, or 
service, lift up your heart to the living 
Saviour, draw upon Him, let Him feel that 
you are depending upon Him for the word 
to say, and the strength to say it. And 
immediately there will be a willing up of 
power within your heart, as lakes are 
filled from hidden springs. 

But my faith is so weak, I forget to look 
in my hour of need ; and when I do look it 
does not seem to give me much help. 

Weak faith generally shows that there is 
something wrong in the inner life. Ex- 
amine 3^our selves to see the cause. Are 
you yielding to temptation ? Every temp- 
tation overcome is an increase of spiritual 
power, but every temptation yielded to 
cuts the sinews of your strength and shears 
off the seven locks of your might. Have 
you fully yielded yourself to God ? Often 
failure points to lack of consecration. Is 
not self too prominent in you? Before 



124 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

conversion you lived from the center of an 
irreligious self. Are you perfectly sure 
that you are not now living from the center 
of a religious self? 

Show me the workings of this religious 
self, the symptom and source of weakness, 
that I may know and hate myself. 

Think for a moment ! In making plans 
for doing God's work, do you not often act 
upon your owm impulse, instead of waiting 
to inquire His will? Have you not often 
rushed into an enterprise without once 
considering whose spirit it was that 
prompted you ? Do you not continually 
ask God to help you in all your little 
schemes, without first asking if He ap- 
proved of them, or seeking to know what 
He had on hand, and if you might help 
Him? And when all is done, is there not 
a spirit of self- congratulation, which, 
though it array itself in the garb of humil- 
ity, is most distasteful to Him, who resis- 
teth the proud ? 

How may I be different? I am pre- 
pared to forego anything, if only I may 
win this blessed secret of blessing, and sav- 
ing others. 

Then yield to Jesus your whole self. 
You are His by the purchase of His blood, 
now be His by your own glad choice. Bind 
yourself as a sacrifice to the horns of the 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 125 

altar. Present your body, soul, and spirit. 
Hand yourself over to be His. Ask Him 
to come and take you. Tell Him that, 
from this glad hour, you wish to be made 
willing to have His way. His will, His law 
in all. Go through life saying, a thousand 
times each day, I am His. 

But if I try to give myself thus wholly to 
Him, how shall I know that He takes me? 

At the first, you can only know it by 
faith. He pledges His word to take that 
which is given Him. If you give your self ^ 
or try to give yourself, or will to give your- 
self, He instantly takes you to be His, and 
from that moment you are His in the bonds 
of an ownership, which is the daybreak of 
Love and Power and Blessing. At first 
there may be no gracious response of 
emotion, but, as the days pass on, and you 
come to taste more and more the sweetness 
of belonging, nevermore to yourself, but 
only to Him, there will come into your 
Jieart the fullness of joy, as well as the full- 
ness of power. You may not be conscious 
of having much power, or any, before you 
begin to work, but when you have begun 
you will be aware that there is going forth 
from you a virtue which will make the 
commonest words powerful as that gar- 
ment hem which brought healing to the 
trembling woman. 



126 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE, 

But how shall I remain in this blessed 
state ? 

Jesus will see to that. Trust Him to 
keep you trusting. At first it may be an 
effort to keep yourself in the love of God, 
but it will become easier, until at last it is 
a second nature. Then you will think 
more of what He says to you than of what 
you say to Him. Then you will be always 
on the alert to catch the least whisper of 
His voice, the slightest token of His will. 
Then you will bring every plan and pur- 
pose into the King's weigh-house before 
putting them in action, or even submitting 
them to your dearest friend. Then you 
will always feel that you are a member of 
His body, depending for the least direc- 
tion, and for all needed strength on Him, 
the Head. Then there will be ever on 
your lips the words, ^^What next, dear 
Lord, what next?'' and you shall read 
His will in circumstances, which to others 
might seem trivial and devoid of meaning. 
You will be always on the alert to find out 
for each day what good works have been 
prepared by Him for you to walk in. All 
that happens to you shall be as couriers 
bringing the secret letters of His love, 
signed by His hand, and telling you what 
to do. ]N"othing shall seem to come amiss 
or by chance. In all things you shall have 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 127 

definite fellowship with Him, until you 
talk over with Him all your life. You 
shall abide in Him, and He in you, and 
out of that abiding union will come abiding 
power, because His power shall reside in 
you in all its glory, just as the flashing 
volume of the cataract dwells constantly in 
the rocky basin into which it falls, and from 
which it rushes forth to ward drought and 
famine from the fields and homes of men. 

It is a fair vision, and I would that my 
poor life might touch even its outermost 
rim of beauty, but I fear it is not for me. 

Aye, but it is, if only you are content to 
open the door to Him. He stands at the 
door and knocks ; if any will open the 
door He will come in. Are you willing to 
let Him in ? Are you willing for Him to 
do what He likes with you and yours? 
Are you willing to be an ass's jaw-bone in 
the hands of this Samson, a cypher behind 
this mighty numeral ? If so, He will be- 
gin to fulfill in you the good pleasure of 
His goodness and the work of faith with 
power ; and you may write on the lintel of 
your life, ^^This house has passed into 
other hands, and will be opened under en- 
tirely new management." You cannot 
help being full of power if the Almighty 
Saviour comes to live in you. If you want 
overcoming power, get the Overcomer to 



128 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

come and fill you, and the thing is done. 
Do not talk about it^ but about Him ; it is 
not an influence, it is Himself. 

. This is my will, most merciful Lord, and 
from this moment grant that I may always 
desire and will that which is to Thee most 
acceptable and most dear. Let Thy will 
be mine, and let my will ever follow 
Thine, and agree perfectly with it, as the 
steel to the magnet, or the hand to the head. 
But there is something in addition, 
which you must mark and remember. The 
reading of the Bible is as necessary as the 
fuelling of an engine with coal, or the im- 
parting of strength to an invalid by food. 
And this reading must be steeped in the 
spirit of prayer. You must never let your 
work for Christ so engross you, as to rob 
you of those quiet hours, when He needs 
you to be alone with Him, that He may de- 
clare to you His Father's Name, and re- 
veal Himself, and charge you with the 
spiritual forces stored up in Him. It will 
be well to keep yourself free from attractive 
avenues of service to be fresh for those still 
hours. They are more dear to Him, and 
more needful for you, than all your service. 
'^ In earing time and harvest thou shalt 
rest.'' One hour spent in work, after pro- 
longed fellowship with Christ, will pay 
better than twelve hours spent in unbroken 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 129 

toils. Christ cares less for the amount of 
work done than for its quality. He is more 
anxious about the worker than the work. 

Help me to remember this. Thou Lord 
of the harvest, and often may I leave even 
the whitening fields, that in Thee I may 
find rest and strength. And if I seem to 
tarry, I pray Thee, send some loving re- 
minder to call me to Thy side, as Thou 
didst to Mary by the hand of her sister 
Martha. 

Stay, one moment. There is one blessed 
secret more. When the Apostles were 
eager to win the world. He kept them 
waiting for ten long days, not that He was 
indifferent to the claims of a perishing 
race, nor to damp their ardor, but because 
they had not received that induement of 
Power, which is the prerogative of the 
Holy Grhost to impart. Perhaps you lack 
this. You have received Him as Com- 
forter, Teacher, Sanctifier, but not yet as 
Power for Service. But He will be this ta 
you, if you will. ''Be filled with the 
Spirit" is a positive command. All you 
have to do is to make room for Him, and this 
sacred wind will come in through every 
chink, and key-hole, and apertxire, and 
you will unconsciously become filled with 
spiritual might; ''strengthened with all 
might by His Spirit in your inner man.'^ 



130 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

And when the Power of the Highest over- 
shadows our meek and waiting souls, who 
shall estimate the results that shall accrue 
to His glory ? This is the dying need of 
the Church. This is the one condition of 
her success. But it can only be hers by 
prayer and fasting. If only she would 
never rest till she obtained it, watching 
daily at His gates, waiting at the posts of 
His doors, seeking it as silver, and search- 
ing for it as a hid treasure, then she 
would do exploits as of old, and look forth 
as the morning, ^' fair as the moon, clear 
as the sun, and terrible as an army with 
banners." 

If you win this power, beware that you 
do not lose it. If a man sits on a chair, 
the feet of which stand on glass castors, 
you may pour a continual stream of elec- 
tricity into him, and it will remain in him, 
not a spark will be lost, every part of his 
body will be charged with it. But if there 
is so much as a thread connecting his body 
with the earth, all the electric current will 
pass away, as water through the cracks of 
ajar. So will one besetting sin, one evil 
motive, one proud thought indulged in and 
permitted, rob us of the might of the Holy 
Ghost. Let us beware ! 

'' And the Lord looked on him, and 
said. Go in this thy might ; have not I 
sent thee ?'^ 



The Lost Chord Found 



THE LOST CHORD FOUND. 

THE story of the lost chord has been 
told in exquisite verse, and in stately 
music. We have all heard of the 
lady, who in the autumn twilight, which 
softly filled the room, laid her fingers on 
the open keys of a glorious organ. She 
knew not what she was playing, or what 
she w^as dreaming then ; but she struck one 
chord of music, like the sound of a great 
amen. 

It flooded the crimson twilight, 
Like the close of an angel's psalm; 

And it lay on her fevered spirit 
With a touch of infinite calm. 

It quieted pain and sorrow, 

Like love overcoming strife ; 
It seemed the harmonious echo 

From our discordant life. 

It linked all perplexed meanings, 

Into one perfect peace; 
And trembled away into silence 

As if it were loth to cease. 

Something called her away, and when 
she returned to the organ, she had lost 

133 



134 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

that chord divine. Though she longed for 
it, and sought it, it was all in vain. It 
was a lost chord. 

Whenever I hear that story, it reminds 
me of the lost joy, the lost peace, the lost 
power, of which so many complain. At 
the beginning of their Christian life, near 
at hand, or right back in the past, it would 
seem as if they had struck the chord of a 
blessed and glorious life. As long as those 
notes lingered in their lives, they were like 
the days of heaven upon earth, but alas ! 
they died away soon into silence — and all 
their life is now filled with regret for the 
grace of days that are dead. 

Where is the blessedness I knew 

When first I saw the Lord ? 
Where is the soul -refreshing view 

Of Jesus and His Word ? 

What peaceful hours I then enjoyed ! 

How sweet their memory still ! 
But they have left an aching void, 

The world can never fill. 

These words are written to help all such 
and to give them again the sweet lost 
chord. Take heart ! you may again have 
all, and more than all that you have ever 
lost. You have flung your precious stones 
into the deep, there has been a moment's 
splash, a tiny ripple, and they have sunk 



THE LOST CHORD FOUND. 135 

down and down, apparently beyond hope 
of recovery. Yet the hand of Christ will 
again place them on yonr palm. Only 
henceforth, be wise enough to let Him keep 
them for you. 

These are the steps back — steps you may 
take at once : — 

1. — Be sure that God will give you a hearty 
Welcome. He is not an angry Judge. He 
has not given you up or ceased to love you. 
He longs after you. His portrait is drawn 
by One who could not mislead us, who 
compares Him to the Father of a loved and 
prodigal boy, ever watching from His 
windows the road by which the truant went, 
eagerly longing for his return, and ready, 
if he should see him a great way off, to 
run to meet him, and clasp him, rags and 
filth and all, to his yearning heart. That 
is thy God, my friend. Listen to His words, 
broken by sighs, ^'How shall I give thee 
up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, 
Israel ? how shall I make thee as Admah ? 
how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine 
heart is turned within Me, My compassions 
are kindled.'' Eead the last chapter of the 
Book of Hosea, which may be well called 
the backsliders' gospel. Read the third 
chapter of Jeremiah, and let the plaintive 
pleadings to return soak into your spirit. 
Eead the story of Peter's fall and restora- 



136 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

tion, and let your tears fall thick and fast 
on Johnxxi. ,as you learn how delicately the 
Lord forgave, and how generously He in- 
trusted the backslider with His sheep and 
lambs. Be sure that though your repeated 
failures and sins have worn out everyone 
else, they have not exhausted the infinite 
love of Grod. He tells us to forgive our 
offending brother unto four hundred and 
ninety times, how much oftener will He 
not forgive us ? According to the height 
of heaven above the earth, so great is His 
mercy. ^^ Let the wicked forsake his way, 
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and 
let him return unto the Lord, and He will 
have mercy upon him, and to our God, for 
He will abundantly pardon.'' If you go 
back to God, you are sure of a hearty 
welcome. 

2. — Seek to know and confess whatever has 
eome between God and you. You have lost 
the light of God's face, not because He has 
arbitrarily withdrawn it, but because your 
iniquities have come between you and your 
God, and your sins, like a cloud before the 
sun, have hid His face fi:om you. Do not 
spend time by looking at them as a whole, 
deal with them one by one. The Boer is a 
formidable foe to the British soldier, be- 
cause he is trained from boyhood to take a 
definite aim and bring down his mark, 



THE LOST CHORD FOUND, 137 

while our soldiers fire in volleys. In deal- 
ing with sin, we should imitate him in the 
definiteness and accuracy of his aim. Ask 
God to search you and show you what 
wicked way is in you. Marshal all your 
life before Him, as Joshua marshaled 
Israel, sift it through, tribe by tribe, 
family by family, household by household, 
man by man, until at last you find the 
Achan who has robbed you of the blessed 
smile of God. Do not say : Lord, I am a 
great sinner, I have done what I ought not, 
I have not done what I ought. But say. 
Lord, I have sinned in this, and this, and 
that, and the other. Call up each rebel 
sin, by its right name, to receive sentence 
of death. Your heart is choked with sins ; 
empty it out, as you would empty a box, 
by handing out first the articles that lie on 
the surface. When you have removed 
them, you will see more underneath ; hand 
them out also. When these are removed, 
you will probably see some more. Never 
rest till all are gone. Confession is just this 
process of telling God the unvarnished 
story — the sad, sad story — of each accursed 
sin. How it began. How you sinfully per- 
mitted it to grow. How you have loved 
and followed it to your bitter cost. 

3. — Believe in God^ s instant forgiveness. How 
long does it take you to forgive your child, 



138 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

when you are sure that it is really sorry 
and repentant ? Time is not considered in 
forgiveness. The estrangement of a life- 
time, the wrong-doing of years may be for- 
given in the twinkling of an eye, in the 
time that a tear takes to form and fall. So it 
is with God. If we confess our sins. He is 
faithful and just to forgive us. He does 
sometimes keep us waiting for an answer 
to other prayers, but He never keeps us 
waiting one single second for an answer to 
our prayer for forgiveness. It is hardly 
possible for the prodigal to stammer out 
the words : Father, I have sinned, before 
the answer flashes upon him, I have put 
away thy sin, thou shalt not die. There is 
not a moment's interval between the 
humble and sad telling of the story of sin 
and God's forgiveness. As soon as a peni- 
tent appears in the doorway of God's 
throne-room, the golden scepter of His 
royal forgiveness is stretched out for him 
to touch. You may not feel forgiven. 
You may have no ecstasy of joy. But you 
are forgiven, in the thoughts of God. The 
angels hear Him say : Child ^ thy sins, which 
are many^ are all forgiven thee ; go in peace. If 
we confess, and as soon as we confess, He 
is faithful and just to forgive. He never 
says. Go thy way, and return to-morrow, 
and I will see whether I can forgive. He 



THE LOST CHORD FOUND. 139 

hates the sin, and is only too glad to sweep 
it away. He loves the sinner, and is only 
too happy to receive him again to His em- 
brace. And He is able to do all this so 
quickly and so entirely, because Jesus 
Christ our Lord bare our sins in His own 
body on the tree. 

4:.— Give up the cause of past failure. True 
repentance shows itself in eager care not to 
offend again. This care prompts the sinner 
to go back on his past life to discover how 
it was that he came to sin, and to avoid 
the cause. Is it a friendship ? Then he 
will cut the tender cord, though it were the 
thread of his life. Is it an amusement? 
Then he will forever absent himself from 
that place, those scenes, and that compan- 
ionship. Is it a profitable means of making 
money? Then he will rather live on a 
crust than follow it a moment longer. Is 
it a study, a pursuit, a book ? Then he 
will rather lose hand, or foot, or eye, 
than miss the favor of God, which is life. 
Is it something that the Church permits ? 
Nevertheless, to him it shall be sin. If 
you cannot walk on ice without slipping or 
falling, it is better to not go on at all. If 
you cannot digest certain food, it is better 
not to put it in the mouth. It may seem 
impossible to extricate yourself from cer- 
tain entanglements which have woven 



140 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

themselves about you. Nevertheless, re- 
member Him who said, Let My people go, 
that they may serve Me. He cut the knot 
for them. ; if you trust Him, He will cut it 
for you. Or if He do not cut it at a single 
blow. He will untie it by the patient work- 
ings of His Providence. 

5. — Take any public step that may he necessary. 
It is not enough to confess to God ; you 
must also confess to man, supposing that 
you have sinned against him. Leave your 
gift at the altar and go to be reconciled to 
thy brother. If you have done him a 
wrong, go and tell him so. If you have de- 
frauded him, whether he knows or not, send 
him the amount you have taken or kept 
back, and add to it something to compensate 
him for his loss. Under the Levitical law 
it was enacted that the delinquent should 
restore that which he took violently away, 
or that about which he had dealt falsely, 
and should add one fifth part thereto, and 
only then might he come with his trespass 
offering to the priest, and be forgiven. This 
principle holds good to-day. You never 
will be happy till you have made restitu- 
tion. Write the letter or make the call at 
once. And if the one whom you defrauded 
is no longer alive, then make the debt right 
with his heirs and representatives. You 
must roll away this stone from the grave, 



THE LOST CHORD FOUND, 141 

or the dead joy can never arise, however 
loudly you may call it to come forth. I do 
not believe in a repentance which is not 
noble enough to make amends for the past, 
so far as they may lie within its reach. 

6. — Give your whole heart once and forever 
to God, You may have done it before, but 
do it again. You may never have done it, 
then do it for the first time. Kneel down 
and give yourself, your life, your interests, 
your all to God. Lay the sacrifice on the 
altar. If you cannot give^ then ask God to 
come, and take. Tell Him that you wish to 
be only, always, all for Him. We might 
well hesitate to give the Glorious Lord such 
a handful of withered leaves, if He had not 
expressly asked us each to give Him our 
heart. It is very wonderful ; but He would 
not make such a request if He did not really 
mean it. No doubt He can make something 
out of our poor nature. A Vessel for His 
Use. A Weapon for His Hand. A Eecep- 
tacle for His Glory. A Crown for His 
Brow. 

7. — Trust God to keep you in all the Future, 
The old version used to tell us that He was 
able to keep us from falling. The new ver- 
sion, giving a closer rendering of the Greek, 
tells us that He is able to guard us from 
stumbling. So He can. So He will. But 
we must trust Him. Moment by moment 



142 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

we must look into His face, and say, '' Hold 
Thou me up, and I shall be safe ; keep me 
as the apple of Thine eye ; hide me under 
the shadow of Thy wings.'' He will never 
fail thee. He will never fail thee nor for- 
sake thee. He will give His angels charge 
to keep thee in all thy ways. He will cover 
thee with His feathers, and under His wing 
thou shalt trust. 

But you say, I fail to look at the mom- 
ent of temptation. Then do this. Ask the 
Holy Spirit, whose office it is to bring all 
things to our remembrance, that He would 
remind you to look off to Jesus, when you 
are in danger. Intrust yourself each morn- 
ing into His hands. Look to Him to keep 
you looking. Trust in Him to keep you 
trusting. Do not look at your difficulties 
or weaknesses. Do not keep thinking that 
you will some day fall again. Go through 
life, whispering, saying, singing, a thous- 
and times a day, Jesus saves me now. 

A friend once told me, that she had been 
kept from backsliding thus: — She always 
took time at night to consider quietly in the 
presence of God, where she had lost ground 
during the day, and if she felt that she had 
done so, she never slept until she had asked 
to be forgiven and restored. 'Tis a good ex- 
pedient, dear reader, for thee and me. Let 
us repair the little rift within the lute, lest 



THE LOST CHORD FOUND. 143 

ty-and-by it spread and make our music 
mute, and slowly widening, silence all. 

If these directions are followed, the lost 
chord will be no longer lost, nor shall we 
have to wait until God's great Angel sounds 
it, but it will ring again in our heart, and 
make sweet music in our life. 



The Secret 



Victory Over Sin 



THE SECRET OF VICTORY OVER SIN. 

THE longer I live, and learn the ex- 
perience of most .Christian people, 
the more I long to help them and un- 
fold glimpses of that Life of Peace, and 
Power, and Victory over sin, which our 
heavenly Father has made possible for us. 
There are blessed secrets in the Bible, hid- 
den from the wise and prudent, but re- 
vealed to babes ; things which eye hath not 
seen, or ear heard, or the heart of man 
conceived, but which God reveals by His 
Spirit to them that love Him ; and if these 
were once understood and accepted, they 
would wipe away many a tear, and shed 
sunshine on many a darkened pathway. 

The bitterest experience with most Be- 
lievers is the Presence and Power of Sin. 
They long to walk through this grimy 
world with pure hearts and stainless gar- 
ments. But when they would do good, 
evil is present with them. They consent 
to God's law that it is good ; they approve 
it; they even delight in it after the inward 
man ; they endeavor to keep it ; but, not- 

147 



148 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

withstanding all, they seem as helpless to 
perform it as a man, whose brain has 
been smitten with paralysis, to walk 
straight. What rivers of briny tears have 
fallen upon the open pages of the Penitents^ 
Psalm (51st), shed by those who could re- 
peat it every word from the heart ! And 
what regiments of weary feet have trodden 
the Bridge of Sighs, if we may so call 
Eomans vii., which sets forth, in vivid 
force, the experience of a man who has 
not learnt God's secret ! 

Surely our God must have provided for 
all this. It would not have been like Him 
to fill us with hatred to sin, and longings 
for holiness, if there were no escape from 
the tyranny of the one, and no possibility 
of attaining the other. It would be a small 
matter to save us from sinning on the other 
side of the pearly gate ; we want to be 
saved from sinning now, and in this dark 
world. We want it for the sake of the 
World, that it may be attracted and con- 
vinced. We want it for our own peace, 
which cannot be perfected whilst we groan 
under a worse than Egyptian bondage. We 
want it for the Glory of God, which would 
be then reflected from us, with undimming 
brightness, as sunshine from burnished 
metal. 

Whatj then, does the Word of God lead us to 



SECRET OF VICTORY OVER SIN. 149 

expect f Before Abraham arose to walk 
through the land of Promise in its length 
and breadth, God bade Him ^' lift up his 
eyes and look." And before we can enter 
into the enjoyment of our privileges in 
Jesus Christ, we must know what they are, 
in something of their length and breadth, 
and depth and height. 

1. — We must not expect to he free from temp- 
tation. Our adversary the devil is always 
going about as a roaring lion seeking whom 
he may devour. He tempted our Lord, he 
will tempt us. He will entice us to do 
wrong by every avenue of sense, and will 
pour his evil suggestions through eye and 
ear, and touch, and mouth, and mind. If 
he does not attack us himself, he can set on 
us any one of his myriad agents, who will 
get behind us, and step softly up to us, and 
whisperingly suggest many grievous blas- 
phemies which we shall think have pro- 
ceeded from our own mind. 

But Temptation is not Sin. A man may 
ask me to share with him the spoils of a 
burglary, but no one can accuse me of re- 
ceiving stolen property if I indignantly re- 
fuse and keep my doors close shut against 
him. Our Lord was tempted in all points 
as we are, yet without sin. You might go 
through hell itself, teeming with all manner 
of awful suggestions, and yet not sin. God 



150 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

would not allow Satan to tempt us, if 
temptation necessarily led to sin ; but 
temptation does not do so ; there is no sin, 
so long as the Will refuses to consent to 
the solicitation, or catch at the bait. 

Temptation may even be a blessing to a 
man, when it reveals to him his weakness, 
and drives him to the Almighty Saviour. 
Do not be surprised, then, dear child of 
God, if you are tempted at every step of 
your earthly journey, and almost beyond 
endurance, but you will not be tempted be- 
yond what you are able to bear, and with 
every temptation there will be a way of es- 
cape. 

2. — We must not expect to lose our sinful na- 
ture. When we are born again, a new life, 
the life of God, is put into us by the Holy 
Spirit. But the old self-life, which is 
called in Scripture the flesh, is not taken 
away. The two may co-exist in the same 
heart. '^The flesh lusteth against the 
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.'' 
The presence of this old self-life within our 
heart may be detected by its risings, ruf- 
flings, chafings, and movings towards sin 
when temptation calls to it from without. 
It may be as still as death before the in- 
creasing power of the new life, but it will 
still be present in the depths of our na- 
ture, as a Samson in the dark dungeons of 



SECRET OF VICTORY OVER SIN. 151 

Philistia, and there will be always a possi- 
bility, and a fear, of its strength growing 
again to our shame and hurt. 

Do not ignore the presence of a sinful na- 
ture within you, with its tendencies and 
possibilities for sin. Many souls have been 
betrayed into negligence and un watchful- 
ness by the idea that the root of sin had 
been plucked from their hearts, and that 
therefore they could not sin again ; and in 
the face of some sudden up-rising of their 
old nature they have been filled with agony 
and shame, even if they have not dropped 
for a moment back into a sea of ink. ^^ If 
we say that we have no sin, we deceive 
ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 

There is a difference between sm and dn^. 
Sin is the root-principle of evil, the flesh, 
the old self-life, the bias and tendency to 
sin, which may be kept down by the grace 
of God, but which will remain in us, though 
in diminishing powder, till we leave this 
w^orld. Sins are the outcome of this ; 
the manifestations in act of the sinful na- 
ture within, from these we may be daily 
saved, through the grace of Jesus (Matt. i. 
21) . To put the matter clearly, sin is not 
dead in us, but we may be dead to sin, so 
that it shall not bear the deadly fruit of 
sins, 

3. — We must not expect to be free from lia- 



152 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

bility to sin. What is Sin ? It is the ^' Yes ' ' 
of the Will to temptation. It is very diffi- 
cult to express the delicate workings of our 
hearts, but does not something like this 
happen to us when we are tempted ? A 
temptation is suddenly presented to us, and 
makes a strong appeal. Immediately there 
may be a tremulous movement of the old 
nature, as the strings of a violin, or piano, 
vibrate in answer to any sounds that may 
be thrilling the air around. Some do not 
feel this tremulous response, others do, 
though I believe that it will get fainter and 
fainter as they treat it with continued 
neglect, so that at last, in the matured 
saint, it will become almost inaudible. 
This response indicates the presence of the 
evil nature within, which is in itself hate- 
ful in the sight of our Holy God, and 
should be bemoaned and confessed, and 
ever needs the presence of the Blood of 
Jesus to counteract and atone ; but that 
tremulous movement has not, as yet, 
developed into an actual overt sin, for 
which we are responsible, and of which we 
need to repent. 

Sin is the act of the Will, and is only 
possible when the will assents to some un- 
holy influence. The Tempter, presenting 
his temptation through the senses and 
emotions, makes an appeal to the Will, 



SECRET OF VICTORY OVER SIN, 153 

which is our real self. If that Will in- 
stantly shudders, as chicks when the hawk 
is hovering in the sky above them, and 
cries, ^' How can I do this great wicked- 
ness, and sin against God ! '' and looks at 
once to Jesus, — there are, so far as I can 
understand, no sins. If on the other hand 
the Will begins to palter with temptation, 
to dally with it, and yield to it, then we 
have stepped out of the Light into the 
Dark, we have broken God's Law, splashed 
our white robes, and brought ourselves into 
condemnation. To this we are liable as 
long as we are in this world. We may 
live a godly, righteous, sober life for years, 
but if we look away from God, for onl}^ a 
moment, our will may be suddenly mas- 
tered, as was Louis XVIII. by the mob 
that invaded his palace, and we may, like 
David, be hurried into a sin, which will 
blast our peace and blacken our character 
for all coming time. 

Now what are the secrets of victory over 
sin? 

1. — Remember that the blood of Jesus is ever 
at work cleansing you. It is sweet to notice 
the present tenses of Scripture. He for- 
giveth, healeth, redeemeth, crowneth, 
satisfieth, execute th judgment ; but the 
sweetest of all is ^ ^ The Blood of Jesus 
cleanseth from all sin." It cleansed us 



154 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

when first we knelt at His cross. It will 
cleanse away the last remnant of sin, as 
we cross the golden threshold. But it does 
cleanse us every hour ; as the brook flows 
over the stones in its bed, till they glisten 
with lustrous beauty ; and as the tear- 
water, pouring constantly over the eye^ 
keeps it bright and clean, in spite of all 
the smuts that darken the air. The pos- 
session of a sinful nature is an evil that 
ever needs an antidote. The risings and 
stirrings of that nature beneath the appeals 
of temptation ever need cleansing. The 
permission of things in our life, which we 
now count harmless, but which we shall 
some day, amid increasing light, condemn 
and put away ; — all these need forgiveness. 
But for all these needs there is ample pro- 
vision for us in the Blood of Jesus, which 
is always crying to God for us. Even 
when we do not plead it. or remember it, 
or realize our need of it, it fulfills for us 
and in us its unceasing ministry of bless- 
ing. 

2, — EecJcon yourself dead to the Appeals of 
Sin. Sin has no power over a dead man. 
Dress it in its most bewitching guise, yet 
it stirs him not. Tears and smiles and 
words and blows alike fail to awaken a re- 
sponse from that cold corpse. No appeal 
will stir it now, until it hears the voice of 



SECRET OF VICTORY OVER SIN. 155 

the Son of God. This is our position in 
regard to the appeals of sin. God looks on 
us as having been crucified with Christ, 
and being dead with Him. In Him we 
have passed out of the world of sin and 
death into the world of resurrection glory. 
This is our position in the mind of God ; it 
is for us to take it up, and make it real by 
faith. AVe may not feel any great differ- 
ence, but we must believe that there is ; we 
must act as if there were. Our children 
sometimes play at make-belief; we, too^ 
are to make-believe, and we shall soon 
come to feel as we believe. When, then, a 
temptation solicits you, say, ^^I am dead 
to thee, spend not thine energies on one 
that is oblivious to thy spells and callous 
to thy charms, thou hast no more power 
over me than over my Lord and Head.'' 
^^ Eeckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto 
sin, but alive unto God through Jesus 
Christ our Lord '' (Eom. vi. 2). 

3. — Walk in the Spirit ; keep in with the Holy 
Ghost. The Holy Spirit is in the heart of 
every believer (Eom. viii. 9). But, alas, 
too often He is shut up in some mere attic 
in the back of the house, while the world 
fills the rest. And as long as it is so there 
is only one long, weary story of defeat and 
unrest. But He is not content. Know ye 
not that the Spirit, which He hath made to 



156 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE, 

dwell in us, yearneth even unto jealous 
envy? (Jas. iv. 5, E. V.)- Happy are 
they who yield to Him. Then He will fill 
them, as the tide fills the harbor and lifts 
the barges off" the banks of mud ; He will 
dwell in them, shedding abroad the per- 
fume of the Love of Jesus ; and will reveal 
the deep things of God. We can alwaj^s 
tell when we are wrong with the Spirit of 
God ; our conscience darkens in a moment 
when we have grieved Him. And if we 
are aware of such a darkness, we do w^ell 
never to rest until, beneath His electric 
light, we have discovered the cause, and 
confessed it, and put it away. Besides 
this, if we live and walk in the Spirit we 
shall find that He will work against the 
risings of our old nature, counteracting 
them as disinfecting powder counteracts 
the germs of disease floating in an infected 
house, so that we may not do the things that we 
would (Gal. V. 17, E. V.)- This is one of 
the most precious words in the New Testa- 
ment ; if you have never tried it, I entreat 
you to begin to test it in daily experience. 
^^ Walk in the Spirit,^' hour by hour, by 
watchful obedience to His slightest prompt- 
ings, and you will find that ^' you will not 
fulfill the lust of the flesh.'' 

4. — As soon as you are aivare of Temptation ^ 
look instantly to Jesus, Flee to Him quicker 



SECRET OF VICTORY OVER SIN. 157 

than a chick runs beneath the shelter of 
its mother's wing when the kestrel is in 
the air. In the morning, ere you leave 
your room, put yourself definitely into His 
hands, persuaded He is able to keep that 
which you commit unto Him. Go from 
your room with the assurance that He will 
cover you with His feathers, and under 
His wings shall you trust. And when the 
Tempter comes, look instantly up and say^ 
^' Jesus, I am trusting Thee to keep me.'' 
This is what the Apostle Paul calls using 
the shield of Faith. The upward glance of 
faith puts Jesus as a Shield between the 
Tempter and yourself. You may go 
through life, saying a hundred times a day, 
Jesu^ saves ine, and He will never let those 
that trust in Him be ashamed. ' ' He is 
able to guard you even from stumbling ' ' 
(Jude 24, R. v.). You may be pressed 
with temptations from without, and may 
feel the workings of evil within, and yet 
your Will, looking earnestly to Jesus, 
shall remain steadfast, immovable, and 
unyielding, l^o weapon that is forged 
against you in the armory of hell shall 
prosper. 

5. — There is something better even than this. 
It was first taught me by a grey-haired 
clergyman, in the study of the Deanery, at 
Southampton. Once, when tempted to , 



158 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

feel great irritation, he told us that he 
looked up and claimed the patience and 
gentleness of Christ ; and since then it had 
become the practice of his life to claim 
from Him the virtue, of which he felt the 
deficiency in himself. In hours of unrest, 
Thy Peace, Lord. In hours of irritation, 
Thy Patience, Lord. In hours of tempta- 
tion. Thy Purity, Lord. In hours of weak- 
ness. Thy Strength, Lord. It was to me 
a message straight from the throne; till 
then I had been content with ridding my- 
self of burdens ; now I began to reach forth 
to positive blessing, making each tempta- 
tion the occasion for a new acquisition of 
gold-leaf. Try it, dear reader. 

When I have spoken thus, I have some- 
times been met by the objection, ^^Ah, sir, 
it is quite true that the Lord will keep me 
if I look to Him, but I often forget to look 
in timey This arises from one of three 
causes. Perhaps the heart and life have never 
been entirely surrendered to Jesus. Constant 
defeat always indicates that there has 
been failure in consecration. You must 
not expect Christ to keep you, unless you 
have given your heart and life entirely 
over to Him, so that He is king. Christ 
cannot be keeper, if He is not king. And 
He will not be king at all, unless He is 
king in all. Or perhaps there is a want of 



SECRET OF VICTORY OVER SIN. 159 

Watchfulness. Christ will not keep us if we 
carelessly and wantonly put ourselves into 
the way of temptation. He will give His 
angels charge over us in every path of 
duty, but not to catch us every time we 
like to throw ourselves from the beetling 
height. Watch and pray that ye enter not 
into temptation. Or perhaps there is a lack 
of feeding on the Word of God, No one can 
live a life of Faith without seasons of pro- 
longed waiting on God in the loving study 
of the Bible and in Prayer. The man who 
does not make time for private devotion in 
the early morning cannot walk with God 
all day. And of the two things, the de- 
vout meditation on the Word is more im- 
portant to soul-health than even Prayer. 
It is more needful for you to hear God's 
words than that God should hear yours, 
though the one will always lead to the 
other. Attend to these conditions, and it 
will become both easy and natural to trust 
Christ in the hour of trial. 

If, notwithstanding all these helps, you 
should be still betrayed into a sin, and 
overtaken by a fault, do not lose heart. If 
a sheep and a sow fall into a ditch, the 
sow wallows in it, the sheep bleats pit- 
eously until she is cleansed. Go at once 
to your compassionate Saviour ; tell Him in 
the simplest words the story of your fall 



160 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

and sorrow ; ask Him to wash you at once 
and restore your soul, and, whilst you are 
asking, believe that it is done. Then go 
to any one against or with whom you may 
have sinned and confess your faults one to 
another. Thus the Peace of God that 
passeth all understanding shall return to 
roost in your heart, and to guard it like a 
sentry-angel in shining armor. 

And if you thus live, free from the power 
of sin, you will find that the Master will 
begin to use you as never before and to tell 
you His heart- secrets, and to open to you 
the royal magnificence of a life hidden 
with Himself in God. 



How TO Bear Sorrow 



HOW TO BEAR SORROW. 

YOU are passing through a time of deep 
sorrow. The love on which you 
were trusting has suddenly failed 
you, and dried up like a brook in the desert 
— ^now a dwindling stream, then shallow 
pools, and at last drought. You are al- 
ways listening for footsteps that do not 
come, waiting for a word that is not spoken, 
pining for a reply that tarries overdue. 

Perhaps the savings of your life have 
suddenly disappeared ; instead of helping 
others you must be helped, or you must 
leave the warm nest where you have been 
sheltered from life's storms to go alone 
into an unfriendly world ; or you are sud- 
denly called to assume the burden of some 
other life, taking no rest for yourself till 
you have steered it through dark and diffi- 
cult seas into the haven. Your health, 
or sight, or nervous energy is failing ; you 
carry in yourself the sentence of death ; 
and the anguish of anticipating the future 
is almost unbearable. In other cases there 
is the sense of recent loss through death, 

163 



164 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

like the gap in the forest-glade, where the 
woodsman has lately been felling trees. 

At such times life seems almost insup- 
portable. Will every day be as long as 
this? Will the slow-moving hours ever 
again quicken their pace ? Will life ever 
array itself in another garb than the torn 
autumn remnants of past summer glory ? 
Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? Hath 
He in anger shut up His tender mercies ? 
Is His mercy clean gone forever? 

T}ii% road has been trodden by myriads. 
When you think of the desolating wars 
which have swept through every century 
and devastated every land ; of the expedi- 
tions of the Nimrods, the Nebuchadnez- 
zars, the Timours, the ISTapoleons of his- 
tory ; of the merciless slave-trade, which 
has never ceased to decimate Africa ; and 
of all the tyranny, the oppression, the 
wrong which the defenceless have suffered 
at the hands of their fellows ; of the un- 
utterable sorrows of women and children, 
surely you must see that by far the larger 
number of our race have passed through 
the same bitter griefs as those which rend 
your heart. Jesus Christ Himself trod 
this diflBcult path, leaving traces of His 
blood on its flints ; and apostles, prophets, 
confessors, and martyrs have passed by the 
same way. It is comforting to know that 



HOW TO BEAR SORROW, 165 

others have traversed the same dark val- 
ley, and that the great multitudes which 
stand before the Lamb, wearing palms of 
victory, came out of great tribulation. 
Where they were we are ; and, by God's 
grace, where they are we shall be. 

Do not talk about piinishnent. You may 
talk of chastisement or correction, for our 
Father deals with us as with sons ; or you 
may speak of reaping the results of mis- 
takes and sins dropped as seeds into life's 
furrows in former years ; or you may have 
to bear the consequences of the sins and 
mistakes of others ; but do not speak of 
punishment. Surely all the guilt and pen- 
alty of sin were laid on Jesus, and He put 
them away forever. His were the stripes,' 
and the chastisement of our peace. If 
God punishes us for our sins, it would seem 
that the sufferings of Christ were incom- 
plete ; and if He once began to punish us, 
life would be too short for the infliction of 
all that we deserve. Besides, how could 
we explain the anomalies of life, and the 
heavy sufferings of the saints as compared 
wdth the gay life of the ungodly? Surely, 
if our sufferings were penal, there would 
be a reversal of these lots. 

Sorrow is a refiner'' s crueihle. It may be 
caused by the neglect or cruelty of another, 
by circumstances over which the sufferer 



166 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

has no control, or as the direct result of 
some dark hour in the long past ; but inas- 
much as God has permitted it to come, it 
must be accepted as His appointment, and 
considered as the furnace by which He is 
searching, testing, probing, and purifying 
the soul. Suffering searches us as fire does 
metals. We think we are fully for God, 
until we are exposed to the cleansing fire 
of pain ; then we discover, as Job did, how 
much dross there is in us, and how little 
real patience, resignation, and faith. 
Nothing so detaches us from the things of 
this world, the life of sense, the birdlime 
of earthly affections. There is probably 
no other way by which the power of the 
self-life can be arrested, that the life of 
Jesus may be manifested in our mortal 
flesh. 

But God always keeps the discipline of sorrow 
in His own hands. Our Lord said, ^^My 
Father is the husbandman.^' His hand 
holds the pruning- knife ; His eye watches 
the crucible ; His gentle touch is on 
the pulse while the operation is in 
progress. He will not allow even the devil 
to have his own way with us. As in the 
case of Job, so always. The moments are 
carefully alloted. The severity of the test 
is exactly determined by the reserves of 
grace and strength which are lying unre- 



HOPV TO BEAR SORROW. 167 

cognized within, but will be sought for and 
used beneath the severe pressure of pain. 
He holds the winds in His fist, and the 
waters in the hollow of His hand. He dare 
not risk the loss of that which has cost 
Him the blood of His Son. '^ God is faith- 
ful, who will not suffer you to be tried 
above that ye are able.'' 

In sorrow the Comforter is near, '' Very 
present in time of trouble." He sits by the 
crucible, as a Eefiner of silver, regulating 
the heat, marking every change, waiting 
patiently for the scum to float away, and 
His own face to be mirrored in clear, trans- 
lucent metal. No earthly friend may 
tread the winepress with you, but the 
Saviour is there. His garments stained with 
the blood of the grapes of your sorrow. 
Dare to repeat it often, though you do not 
feel it, and though Satan insists that God 
has left you, "• Thou art with me." Mention 
His name again and again, " Jesns, Jesus. 
Thou art with me." So you will become 
conscious that He is there. 

When friends come to console you they 
talk of time's healing touch, as though the 
best balm for sorrow were to forget, or in 
their well-meant kindness they suggest 
travel, diversion, amusement, and show 
their inability to appreciate the black 
night that hangs over your soul, so you 



168 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

turn from them, sick at heart, and prepared 
to say, as Job of his, ^^ Miserable comfort- 
ers are ye all ' ' ; but all the while Jesus is 
nearer than they are, understanding how 
they wear you, knowing each throb of pain, 
touched by fellow-feeling, silent in a love 
too full to speak, waiting to comfort from 
hour to hour as a mother her weary, suffer- 
ing babe. 

Be sure to study the art of this Divine 
comfort, that you may be able to comfort 
them that are in any affliction with the 
comfort with which you yourself have been 
comforted of God (2 Cor. i. 4). There 
can be no doubt that some trials are per- 
mitted to come to us, as to our Lord, for 
no other reason than that by means of them 
we should become able to give sympathy 
and succor to others. And we should 
watch with all care each symptom of 
the pain, and each prescription of the 
Great Physician, since, in all probability, 
at some future time, we shall be called to 
minister to those passing through similar 
experiences. Thus we learn by the things 
that we suffer, and, being made perfect, 
become authors of priceless and eternal 
help to souls in agony. 

Do not shut yourself up with your sorrow, A 
friend, in the first anguish of bereavement, 
wrote, saying that he must give up Christ- 



now TO BEAR SORROW. 169 

ian ministries in which he had delighted ; 
and I replied immediately, urging him not 
to do so, because there is no solace for heart- 
pain like ministry. The temptation of 
great suffering is towards isolation, with- 
drawal from the life of men, sitting alone, 
and keeping silence. Do not yield to it. 
Break through the icy chains of reserve, 
if they have already gathered. Arise, 
anoint your head, and wash your face; go 
forth to do your duty, with willing though 
chastened steps. Selfishness, of every kind, 
in its activities or its introspection, is a 
hurtful thing, and shuts out the help and 
love of God. Sorrow is apt to be selfish. 
The soul, occupied with its own griefs, and 
refusing to be comforted, becomes presently 
a Dead Sea, full of brine and salt, over 
which birds do not fly, and beside which 
no green thing grows. And thus we miss 
the very lesson that God would teach us. 
His constant war is. against the self-life, 
and every pain He inflicts is to lessen its 
hold on us. But we may thwart His pur- 
pose, and extract poison from His gifts, as 
men get opium and alcohol from innocent 
plants. 

A Hindoo woman, the beautiful Eastern 
legend tells us, lost her only child. Wild 
with grief, she implored a prophet to give 
back her little one to her love. He looked 



170 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

at her for a long while tenderly, and said, 
^' Go, my daughter, bring me a handful of 
rice from a house into which Death has 
never entered, and I will do as thou de- 
sirest.'' The woman at once began her 
search. She went from dwelling to dwell- 
ing, and had no difficulty in obtaining 
what the prophet specified ; but when they 
had granted it, she inquired, ^^ Are you all 
here around the hearth — father, mother, 
children^ — none missing ? ' ' But the people 
invariably shook their heads with sighs 
and looks of sadness ; for far and wide as 
she wandered, there was always some va- 
cant seat by the hearth. And gradually, 
as she passed on, the narrator says, the 
waves of her grief subsided before the spec- 
tacle of sorrow everywhere, and her heart, 
ceasing to be occupied with its own selfish 
pang, flowing out in strong yearnings of 
sympathy with the universal suff*ering, 
tears of anguish softened into tears of pity, 
passion melted away in compassion, she 
forgot herself in the general interest, and 
found redemption in redeeming. 

Do not chide yourself for feeling strongly. 
Tears are natural. Jesus wept. A thun- 
der-storm without rain is fraught with 
peril ; the pattering raindrops cool the air, 
and relieve the overcharged atmosphere. 
The swollen brooks indicate that the snows 



HOW TO BEAR SORROW. 171 

are melting on the hills and spring is near. 
*^ Daughters of Jerusalem," said our Lord, 
^^ weep for yourselves and your children." 
To bear sorrow with dry eyes and stolid 
heart may befit a Stoic, but not a Chris- 
tian. We have no need to rebuke fond na- 
ture crying for its mate, its lost joy, the 
touch of the vanished hand, the sound of 
the voice that is still, provided only that 
the will is resigned. This is the one con- 
sideration for those who suffer — Is the will 
right? If it isn't, God Himself cannot 
comfort. If it is, then the path will in- 
evitably lead from the valley of the shadow 
of death to the banqueting table and the 
overflowing cup. 

Many say : I cannot feel resigned. It 
is bad enough to have my grief to bear, but 
I have this added trouble, that I cannot 
feel resigned. My invariable reply is : you 
probably never can feel resignation, but 
you can will it. The Lord Jesus, in the 
Garden of Gethsemane, has shown us how 
to suffer. He chose His Father's will. 
Though Judas, prompted by Satan, was 
the instrument for mixing the cup and 
placing it to the Saviour's lips, He looked 
right beyond him to the Father, who per- 
mitted him to work his cruel way, and 
said : ' ^ The cup that My Father giveth 
Me to drink, shall I not drink it ? " And 



172. STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

He said repeatedly, ^^ If this cup may not 
pass from Me, except I drink it. Thy will 
be done.'' He gave up His own way and 
will, saying, ^^ I will Thy will, O My Fa- 
ther ; Thy will, and not Mine, be done.'' 

Let all sufferers who read these lines go 
apart and dare to say the same words: 
^ '- Thy will, and not mine ; Thy will be done 
in the earth of my life, as in the heaven of 
Thy purpose; I choose Thy will." Say 
this thoughtfully and deliberately, not be- 
cause you can feel it, but because you will 
it ; not because the way of the cross is 
pleasant, but because it must be right. Say 
it repeatedly, whenever the surge of pain 
sweeps through you, whenever the wound 
begins to bleed afresh : ISTot my will, but 
Thine be done. Dare to say Yes to God. 
^' Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good 
in Thy sight." 

And so you will be led to feel that all is 
right and well ; and a great calm will settle 
down on your heart, a peace that passeth 
understanding, a sense of rest, which is 
not inconsistent with suffering, but walks 
in the midst of it as the three young men 
in the fiery furnace, to whom the burning 
coals must have been like the dewy grass 
of a forest glade. ^' The doctor told us my 
little child was dying. I felt like a stone. 
IBut in a moment I seemed to give up my 



HOW TO BEAR SORROW. 17^ 

hold on her. She appeared no longer 
mine, but God's. 

Be sure to learn God^s lessons. Each sor- 
row carries at its heart a germ of holy 
truth, which if you get and sow in the soil 
of your heart will bear harvests of fruit, as 
seed-corns from mummy-cases fruit in 
English soil. God has a meaning in each 
blow of His chisel, each incision of Hi& 
knife. He knows the way that He takes. 
But His object is not always clear to us. 

In suflFering and sorrow God touches the 
minor chords, develops the passive virtues^ 
and opens to view the treasures o.f dark- 
ness, the constellations of promise, the 
rainbow of hope, the silver light of the cov- 
enant. What is character without sympa- 
thy, submission, patience, trust, and hope 
that grips the unseen as an anchor ? But 
these graces are only possible through sor- 
row. Sorrow is a garden, the trees of 
which are laden with the peaceable fruits^ 
of righteousness ; do not leave it without 
bringing them with you. Sorrow is a mine, 
the walls of which glisten with precious 
stones ; be sure and do not retrace your 
steps into daylight without some speci- 
mens. Sorrow is a school. You are sent 
to sit on its hard benches and learn from 
its black-lettered pages lessons which will 
make you wise forever ; do not trifle away 



174 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

your chance of graduating there. Miss 
Havergal used to ta]k of ^^ turned lessons. ' ^ 

Count on the afterward. God will not 
always be causing grief. He traverses the 
dull brown acres with His plough, seaming 
the yielding earth, that He may be able to 
cast in the precious grain. Believe that in 
days of sorrow He is sowing light for the 
righteous, and gladness for the upright in 
heart. Look forward to the reaping. An- 
ticipate the joy which is set before you, and 
shall flood your heart with minstrel notes 
when patience has had her perfect work. 

You will live to recognize the wisdom of 
God's choice for you. You will one day 
see that the thing you wanted was only 
second best. You will be surprised to re- 
member that you once nearly broke your 
heart and spilt the wine of your life, for 
what would never have satisfied you if you 
had caught it, as the child the butterfly or 
soap-bubble. You will meet again your 
beloved. You will have again your love. 
You will become possessed of a depth of 
character, a breadth of sympathy, a fund 
of patience, an ability to understand and 
help others, which, as you lay them at 
Christ's feet for Him to use, will make you 
glad that you were afflicted. You will see 
God's plan and purpose; you will reap 
His harvest ; you will behold His face, and 



HOW TO BEAR SORROW 175 

be satisfied. Each wound will have its 
pearl ; each carcase will contain a swarm 
of bees ; each foe, like Midian to Gideon, 
will yield its goodly spoil. 

The way of the cross, rightly borne, is 
the only wa}^ to the everlasting light. The 
path that threads the Garden of Geth- 
semane, and climbs over the hill of Calva- 
ry, alone conducts to the visions of the 
Easter morning and the glories of the As- 
cension mount. If we will not drink of 
His cup, or be baptized with His baptism, 
or fill up that which is behind of His suf- 
ferings, we cannot expect to share in the 
joy of His espousals and the ecstasy of His 
triumph. But if these conditions are ful- 
filled, we shall not miss one note in the 
everlasting song, one element in the bliss 
that is possible to men. 

Remember that somehow suffering rightly 
home enriches and helps mankind. The death 
of Hallam was the birthday of Tennyson's 
In Memoriam. The cloud of insanity that 
brooded over Cowper gave us, God moves in 
a mysterious ivay. Milton's blunders taught 
him to sing of Holy Light ^ offspring of heaven 
first-horn, Eist used to say, ^ ' The dear 
cross has pressed many songs out of me." 
And it is probable that none rightly suffer 
anywhere without contributing something 
to the alleviation of human grief, to the 



176 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

triumph of good over evil, of love over 
hate, and of light over darkness. 

If you believed this, could you not bear 
to suffer ? Is not the chief misery of all 
suffering its loneliness, and perhaps its ap- 
parent aimlessness ? Then dare to believe 
that no man dieth to himself. Fall into 
the ground, bravely and cheerfully to die ; 
if you refuse this, you will abide alone, 
but if you yield to it, you will bear fruit 
which will sweeten the lot and strengthen 
the life of others who will never know your 
name, or stop to thank you for your help. 



Peace, Perfect Peace i 



PEACE, PERFECT PEACE ! 

^^ F)EACE, perfect peace ! '' What music 
I there is in these words ! The very 
mention of them fills the heart with 
longings, which cry out for satisfaction, 
and will not be comforted. Sometimes, 
indeed, we may succeed in hushing them 
for a little, as a mother does a fretful child ; 
but soon they wall break out again with 
bitter and insatiable desire. Our nature 
sighs for rest, as the ocean shell when 
placed to the ear, seems to sigh for the un- 
troubled depths of its native home. 

There is peace in those silent depths of 
space, blue for very distance, which bend 
with such gentle tenderness over our 
fevered, troubled lives. There is peace in 
the repose of the unruffled waters of the 
mountain lake, sheltered from the wands by 
the giant cliffs around. There is peace at 
the heart of the whirlwind, which sweeps 
across the desert waste in whirling fury. 
The peace of a woodland dell, of a high- 
land glen, of a summer landscape, all 
touch us. And is there none for us, whose 

179 



180 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

nature is so vast, so composite, so won- 
derful? 

There is. As Jacob lay a-dying in his 
hieroglyphed chamber, not far from the 
Pyramids, his face shadowed by approach- 
ing death, but aglow with the light of the 
world to which he was going, he told how 
Shiloh, the Peaceful One, the Peace-giver,, 
should come to give peace to men. Weary 
generations passed by and still he came 
not, until at length there stood among 
men One, whose outward life was full of 
sorrow and toil ; but whose sweet calm face 
mirrored the unbroken peace that reigned 
within His breast. He was the promised 
Peace-giver. He had peace in Himself; 
for He said, ^^ My peace. ^' He had the 
power of passing that peace on to others ; 
for He said, ^^My peace I give unto you.'' 
Why should not each reader of these lines 
receive the peace which Jesus had Himself, 
and which He waits to give to every long- 
ing and recipient heart ? 

A poor woman timidly asked the gar- 
dener of a gentleman's hothouse, if he 
would sell her jud one bunch of grapes jor her 
dying child. He gruj09.y threatened to sum- 
mon the police, unless she quickly left the 
place. But as she sadly turned away, she 
was recalled by a girlish voice, bidding her 
stay, asking her story, and insisting on her 



PEA CE, PERFECT PEA CE ! 181 

having as many bunches as she could carry 
with her. And when she offered her few 
half-pence in return, she was met by the 
sweet, laughing answer, ^^Nay, my poor 
woman, this is my father's hothouse; we 
don't sell grapes here, but we are very 
pleased to give them ; take them and wel- 
come, for your dying child." It is so that 
Jesus give% His peace to all weary tired 
ones. Why not to you ? 

His peace is perfect (Isa. xxvi. 3) . Un- 
broken by storms. Uninvadedby the rab- 
ble rout of care. Unreached by the highest 
surges of sorrow. Unstained by the con- 
taminating touch of sin. The very same 
peace that reigns in Heaven, where all is 
perfect and complete. 

His peace is as a river (Isa. xlviii. 18). 
The dweller on its banks, in time of 
drought, is well supplied with water. It is 
flowing at early dawn, as he goes to his 
daily toil. It is there in the scorching 
noon. It is there when the stars shine, 
hushing him to sleep with the melody of 
its waves. When he was a child, he 
plucked the flowerets on its banks ; and 
when his foot shall tread its banks never- 
more, his children's children shall come to 
drink its streams. Think, too, how it 
broadens and deepens and fills up, in its 
onward journey, and from its source to the 



182 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

boundless, infinite sea. So may our peace 
be, abiding and growing with our years. 

His peace is great (Isa. liv. 13). The 
mountains may depart and the hills be 
removed, yet shall it abide. Its music is 
louder than the tumult of the storm. Learn 
the lesson of the Lake of Galilee ; that 
the peace which is in the heart of Jesus, 
and which He gives to His own, can quell 
the greatest hurricane that ever swept 
down the mountain ravine and spent itself 
on the writhing waters beneath. For 
when the Master arose and rebuked the 
wind and said unto the sea, '' Peace, be 
still,'' the winds ceased and there was a 
great calm. '^ Great peace have they 
which love Thy law, and nothing shall 
offend them." 

His peace is compatible with much tribula- 
tion (John xvi. 33) . If we never find our 
path dipping down into the sunless valley, 
we may seriously question whether we 
have not missed our way to the Celestial 
City. The road to the Mount of Ascension 
invariably passes through the shadowed 
Garden of Gethsemane, and over the steep 
ascent of Calvary, and then down into the 
Garden of the Grave. ^' We must, through 
much tribulation, enter the Kingdom of 
God. ' ' But amidst it all, it is possible to 
be kept in unbroken peace, like that which 



PEA CE, PERFE CT PEA CE ! 185 

possessed the heart of Jesus, enabling Him 
calmly to work a miracle of healing amid 
the tumult of His arrest. 

His peace j^asse^A all understanding (Phil. 
iv. 7) . It cannot be put into words. It 
defies analysis. It must be felt to be under- 
stood. The thing most like it is the 
gladsomeness of a child in its father's 
home, where wealth and love and wise 
nurture combine to supply all its need ; but 
even that falls short of the glorious reality. 
^^ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
have entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for them 
that love Him ; but God hath revealed 
them unto us by His Spirit. We have the 
mind of Christ." And (bringing out the 
deep meaning of the Greek) , we may say, 
that ttis peace will sentinel our hearts and 
minds, going to and fro, like a sentry be- 
fore a palace, to keep off the intruders that 
would break in upon the sacred enclosure. 
Oh that we might be ever protected by a 
guardianship, so benign and watchful and 
invulnerable to attack. 

There are a few conditions, however, 
which demand our careful thought. 

1. — The Basis of Peace is the Blood. 
^^ He made peace by the Blood of His 
Cross" (Col. i. 20). We sometimes hear 
men speak of making their peace with God. 



184 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE, 

But that is wholly needless. Peace has 
been made. When Jesus died on the 
Cross, He did all that needed to be 
done, and all that could be done, so far 
as God was concerned, in order to 
bring peace to men. Nothing more is 
requisite, save to lay aside fear and sus- 
picion, and to accept the peace which He 
now sweetly and freely offers. '^ God was 
in Christ, reconciling the world unto Him- 
self, not imputing their trespasses unto 
them . . . now be ye reconciled' '(2 Cor. 
Y. 19-20). 

There were many obstacles to our peace, 
but they have been entirely met, and put 
out of the way. God's Holy Justice, which 
would pursue us with its drawn sword, can 
S2bj nothing against us, because it has been 
more vindicated in the death of the Son 
of God, than it could have been in the per- 
dition of myriads of worlds. The broken 
law, which might press its claims, is 
silenced by the full and complete satisfac- 
tion rendered it in the obedience and death 
of the Law-giver Himself. Conscience 
even, with its long and bitter record of 
repeated sin, feels able to appropriate for- 
giveness without scruple or alarm; be- 
cause it understands that God can be just, 
and yet justify the believer in Jesus. 
^^ Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ 



PEA CE, PERFECT PEA CE ! 185 

that died ; yea, rather that is risen again ; 
who is even at the right hand of God ; 
who also maketh intercession for us.'' 

On the evening of His resurrection, our 
Lord entered through the unopened doors 
into the chamber where His disciples were 
cowering for fear of the Jews. His bene- 
diction, Peace he unto you, fell on their ears 
like the chime of bells amid the storm of 
Friburg's organ. But He did not rest 
satisfied with this. Indeed, His words 
alone would have been in vain. But when 
He had so said. He showed unto them His 
hands and His side, fresh from the Cross, 
with the marks of spear and nails, so that 
He stood amid them like a lamb, ^' as it 
had been slain." Do you wonder that 
they were glad ? The heart must always 
be glad when it learns the sure basis of 
Peace in the Blood shed on the Cross. 
Best on that precious Blood ; make much 
of it ; remember that God sees it, even if 
you do not ; be sure that it pleads through 
the ages, with undiminished efi&cacy ; and 
be at peace. 

2. — The Method of Peace is by Faith 
IN God's Word. How many Christians 
miss God's peace because they look into 
their hearts to see how they feel. If they 
feel right and happy they are at peace. 
But if mists veil the inner sky, or the body 



186 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

is out of health, or the temperature of the 
heart is low, they become sad and de- 
pressed, and ill at ease. Peace has taken 
its flight. This will never do. Life is one 
long torture thus. This is not the blessed 
life which Jesus came to give us. To live 
like this is indeed to miss the prize of our 
high calling and to cast discredit on His 
dear Name. If you seek peace through the 
medium of feeling you will seek it in vain. It 
may come as a wayfaring man for a night ,^ 
but it will not tarry. It may visit you 
like a transient gleam over the hillside, 
but it will be only a tiny break between 
long leagues of cloud. There is a more 
excellent way. Take up the Bible, the 
Word of God to you. Turn to some of the 
texts, which shine in its firmament, as 
stars of the first magnitude in the mid- 
night sky. Consider, for instance w^ords 
like these. Ponder them well. Seek not 
for frames, or feelings, or even for faith, 
but concentrate your mind and heart upon 
their mighty meaning. 

^^ Whosoever believeth in Him, shall not 
L perish, but have everlasting life'^ (John 
lii. 16). 

'' He that heareth My word, and believeth 
on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, 
and shall not come into condemnation, but is 
passed from death unto life '' (John v. 24). 



PEA CE, PERFE C T PEA CE ! 187 

^^ By Him, all that believe are justified from, 
all things " (Acts xiii. 39) . 

' ' The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth 
from all sin'' (1 John i. 7). 

What do these words mean ? Can they 
mean one straw less than they say ? And if 
they are as they seem, is it not clear, that 
directly you believe, you stand before God as 
a reconciled, accepted, and beloved child ? 

What is it to believe f It is to look up to 
Jesus, as a personal Saviour, handing over 
to Him the whole burden of your soul, for 
time and eternity ; sure that He takes what 
you give, at the moment of your giving it, 
even though you feel no immediate peace 
or joy. Belief in the outset is triid, 

' ' Your faith is so weak, ' ' But that does 
not matter, because there is not a word 
said about the amount of faith. The 
greatest faith could not make you more 
secure. The smallest faith cannot put you 
outside the circle of blessing; because the 
word, believeth, is so delightfully vague. 
Faith as a grain of mustard seed can move 
a mountain equally with faith as a walnut- 
shell. Faith that can only touch the gar- 
ment hem gets a blessing which those who 
press may lose. 

^ ' You are not sure if you have the right 
faith.^^ But all faith, any faith, is the 
right faith. There are not many sorts of 



188 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

faith. The faith that can only lay down 
its weary weight on Jesus ; the faith that 
tries to look to Him ; the faith that stag- 
gers towards Him and drops into His 
arms ; the faith that cannot cling because 
its hands are so weak, but which calls to 
Him, believing that He can save, — That is 
all the faith you need, and having it you 
are saved. 

^'But you do not feel saved.'''' And who 
said that that was an essential condition of 
salvation ? Eemember that it is one thing 
to be saved, and quite another to feel it. 
The one may exist without the other ; and 
there are no doubt very many, who are 
certainly the children of God, but who 
have never had the sweet assurance of sal- 
vation, which is the seal of the Spirit, the 
blossom of grace, the kiss of God. Directly 
you look to Jesus ^ you are saved ^ whether you 
feel it or not. Don't think about your feel- 
ings ; don't think about your faith ; look to 
Jesus ; and reckon that God will keep His 
word, and save you. 

The result of all this must inevitably be 
peace. Let Satan from without join with 
the timid heart within in threatening dis- 
aster ; faith simply turns to the Word of 
God, and putting its finger on one of His 
exceeding great and precious promises, 
replies, " This must fail, ere I can perish ; 



PEA CE, PERFECT PEA CE ! 189 

but I know whom I have believed, and am 
persuaded He will keep His word, and that 
He is able to keep that which I have com- 
mitted unto Him.'' 

3. — The Secret of Peace is the Con- 
stant Reference of all to the Care of 
God. ^^ Be anxious in nothing; but in 
everything by prayer and supplication 
with thanksgiving let your requests be 
made known unto God ; and the peace of 
God shall guard your hearts and your 
thoughts in Christ Jesus " (Phil. iv. 6-7). 
Acid dropped on steel, and allowed to re- 
main there, will soon corrode it. And if 
we allow worries, anxieties, careworn ques- 
tioning to brood in our hearts, they will 
soon break up our peace, as swarms of tiny 
gnats will make a paradise uninhabitable. 

There is only one thing that we can do. 
We must hand them over to Jesus just as 
they occur. It will not do to wait until 
the day is done, but in the midst of its 
busy rush, whenever we are conscious of 
having lost our peace, we should stand 
still and ask the cause, and then lift up 
our hearts, and pass it off into the care of 
our loving and compassionate Lord. ^^ 'Tis 
enough that He should care, why should 
we the burden bear?'' 

Ah, what would not our days become, if 
only we could acquire this blessed habit ? 



190 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

We look so weighted, and lead such bur- 
dened lives, because we do not trust Jesus 
with all the little worries of daily life. 
There is nothing small to Him if it hinders 
our peace. And when once you have 
handed aught to him, refuse to take it back 
again, and treat the tendency to do so as a 
temptation to which you dare not give way, 
no, not for a moment. 

Care comes from many sources. Our 
daily food, our dear ones, our worldly 
prospects, our Christian work, our path- 
way in life, our growth in the Divine Life 
— all these contribute their quota to the 
total sum. Let us take them all, and lay 
them down at Jesus' feet, and leave them 
there ; and then live looking to Him to do 
in us, with us, through us, for us, just as 
He will. And as we give Him our cares, 
He will give us His peace, and as He does 
so He will whisper, ^^ My peace I give unto 
you, let not your heart be troubled, neither 
let it be afraid.'' 

There is a remarJcable text in Isaiah , which 
teaches us that the Government should be 
upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ ; and 
that when it is so, there is no end to the 
increase of Peace. '^Of the increase of His 
government and peace there shall be no end (ix. 
7) . Surely these glorious words refer, not 
only to the government of a nation, but of 



PEA CE, PERFECT PEA CE ! 191 

each individual life also, and they are very 
searching. 

Where is the government of our lives ? 
Is it in our own hands? Then we must 
not be surprised, if our hearts are like the 
troubled sea, when it cannot rest. We are 
out of harmony with God, and with His 
will, which must be done whether in us or in 
spite of us. There can be no Peace, because 
there is perpetual clashing, and rebellion. 

But directly we put the government of 
our lives, down to their smallest details, 
into the hands of the Lord Jesus ; then we 
enter into His own infinite Peace. And as 
His government is extended over our 
hearts and lives, so does our Peace extend, 
as when the blessed light of dawn spreads 
like a benediction through the world. 

^^In Me ye shall have peace." 'Twas 
our Saviour who said those words. Let us 
abide in Him. Let us live in Him. Let 
us walk in Him. Let us make of Him the 
secret place unto which we may contin- 
ually resort. And as we are joined to 
Him, in the intimacy of deepest union, the 
peace that fills His heart, like a Pacific 
ocean, shall begin to flow into ours, until 
they are filled wdth the very fullness of 
God ; and the peace of God, like a dove, 
with fluttering wings, shall settle down 
upon our hearts, and make them its home 
forevermore. 



Seven Rules 



Daily Living 



SEVEN RULES FOR DAILY LIVING. 

THESE brief and simple words are in- 
tended for many earnest Christians 
who are dissatisfied with their pres- 
ent life, and long to enter that more blessed 
state of rest and peace of which they catch 
occasional glimpses; as white-plum aged 
sea-birds flash for a moment, faraway over 
the breakers, and then are lost to sight. 

The visit of Messrs. Stanley Smith and 
Studd to Melbourne Hall will always mark 
an epoch in my own life. Before then my 
Christian life had been spasmodic and fit- 
ful ; now flaming up with enthusiasm, and 
then pacing weariedly over leagues of grey 
ashes and cold cinders. I saw that these 
young men had something which I had not, 
but which was within them a constant 
•source of rest and strength and joy. And 
never shall I forget a scene at 7 a. m., in 
the grey November morning, as daylight 
was flickering into the bedroom, paling 
the guttered candles, which from a very 
early hour had been lighting up the page 
of Scripture, and revealing the figures of 

195 



196 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

the devoted Bible-students, who wore the 
old cricketing or boating costume of earlier 
days, to render them less sensible of the 
raw, damp climate. The talk we held then 
was one of the formative influences of my 
life. Why should I not do what they had 
done ? Why should I not yield my whole 
nature to God, working out day by day 
that which He would will and work within ? 
Why should not I be a vessel, though only 
of earthenware, meet for the Master^s use, 
because purged and sanctified ? 

There was nothing new in what they told 
me. They said, that ^^A man must not 
only believe in Christ for final salvation, 
but must trust him for victory over every 
sin, and for deliverance from every care.' ^ 
They said, that^^ The Lord Jesus was will- 
ing to abide in the heart which was wholly 
yielded up to Him.'' They said, that " If 
there were something in our lives that 
made it difficult for us to surrender our 
whole nature to Christ, yet if we were 
willing to be made willing to surrender 
them. He would make us not only willing, 
but glad." They said, that ^^ Directly we 
give or attempt to give ourselves to Him, 
He takes us." All this was simple enough. 
I could have said it myself. But they 
urged me to take the definite step ; and I 
shall be forever thankful that they did. 



SEVEN RULES FOR DAILY LIVING. 197 

And if in a distant country they should read 
this page, let them be encouraged to learn 
that one heart at least has been touched 
with a new fire, and that one voice is ^ 
raised in prayer for their increase in the \ 
knowledge and love of Him who has be- * 
come more real to the suppliant because of 
their brotherly words. 

Very memorable was the night when I 
came to close quarters with God. The 
Angel that wrestled with Jacob had found 
me, eager to make me a Prince. There 
were things in my heart and life which I 
felt were questionable, if not worse ; I 
knew that God had a controversy with re- 
spect to them ; I saw that my very dislike 
to probe or touch them was a clear indica- 
tion that there was mischief lurking be- 
neath. It is the diseased joint that shrinks 
from the touch, the tender eye that shud- 
ders at the light. At the same time I did 
not feel willing to give these things up. It 
was a long struggle. At last I said feebly, 
^' Lord, I am willing to be made willing; I 
am desirous that Thy will should be done 
in me and through me, as thoroughly as it 
is done in Heaven ; come and take me 
and break me and make me. ' ' That was 
the hour of crisis, and when it had passed 
I felt able at once to add, ^ ^ And now I give 
myself to Thee : body, soul, and spirit; in 



198 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

sorrow or in joy; in the dark or in the 
light ; in life or in death, to be Thine only, 
wholly, and forever. Make the most of 
me that can be made for Thy glory.'' No 
rapture or rush of joy came to assure me 
that the gift was accepted. I left the place 
with almost a heavy heart. I simply as- 
sured myself that He must have taken that 
which I had given, and at the moment of 
my giving it. And to that belief I clung 
in all the days that followed, constantly 
repeating to myself the words, ^^I am 
His.'' And thus at last the joy and rest 
entered, and victory, and freedom from 
burdening care, and I found that He was 
moulding my will and making it easy to 
do what I had thought impossible ; and I 
felt that He was leading me into the paths 
of righteousness for His name's sake, but 
so gently as to be almost imperceptible to 
my weak sight. 

I^ow out of my own experience I would 
suggest these Seven Eules to my fellow- 
Christians : 

1. — Make a Definite Consecration of Your- 
selves to God. Dr. Doddridge has left in his 
diary a very beautiful form of self- conse- 
cration. But you need not wait for any- 
thing so elaborate or minute as that. With 
most it would be sufficient to write out 
Miss Havergal's hymn, "' Take my life and 



SE VEN RULES FOR BAIL V LIVING. 199 

let it be," etc., and to sign their names at 
the foot. But in any case it is well to write 
down some record of the act, to keep for 
future reference. Of course when we have 
really given ourselves once, we cannot give 
ourselves a second time. We may renew 
the consecration vows, we may review the 
deed of gift, we may insert any new clauses 
we like. And if we have gone astray, we 
may ask the Lord to forgive the foul wrong 
and robbery which we have done Him, and 
to restore our souls into the position from 
which we have fallen. Oh, how sweet the 
promise, ^^ He restoreth my soul ! " Dear 
Christian reader, seek some quiet spot, 
some still hour, and yield yourself to God. 
2. — Tdl God that you are Willing to he made 
Willing about All. A lady was once in great 
difSculties about certain things which she 
felt eager to keep under her own control. 
Her friend, wishful to press her into the 
better life of consecration, placed before 
her a blank sheet of paper, and pressed 
her to write her name at the foot, and then 
to lay it before God in prayer. She did 
so, and at once entered this blessed life. 
Are you willing to do this? Are you pre- 
pared to sign your name to a blank sheet of 
paper and then hand it over to God, for 
Him to fill in as He please? If not, ask 
Him to make you willing and able to do 



200 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

this and all things else. You never will 
be happy until you let the Lord Jesus keep 
the house of your nature, closely scrutiniz- 
ing every visitor and admitting only His 
friends. He must reign. He must have 
all or none. He must have the key of 
every closet, of every cupboard, and of 
every room. Do not try to make them fit 
for Him. Simply give Him the key. And 
He will cleanse and renovate and make 
beautiful. 

3. — Reckon on Christ to do His Part Per- 
fectly, Directly you give, He takes. Di- 
rectly you will open the door, He enters. 
Directly you will roll back the floodgates, 
He pours in a glorious tide of fullness: 
fullness of wealth, of power, of joy. The 
clay has only to be plastic to the hand of a 
Palissy. The marble has only to be pliant 
to the chisel of a Michael Angelo. The 
organ has only to be responsive to the 
slightest touch of a Handel. The student 
has only to follow the least hint of a Far- 
aday or a Whewell. And there will be no 
failure, in results. Oh, to be equally sus- 
ceptible to the moulding influences of 
Christ ! "We shall not fail in realizing the 
highest ideal of which we are capable, if 
only we will let Him do His work un- 
hindered. 

4. — Confess Sin Instantly, If you allow 



SEVEN RULES FOR DAILY LIVING. 201 

acid to drop and remain on your steel fen- 
ders, it will corrode them, and if you will 
allow sin to remain on your hearts uncon- 
fessedj it will eat out all peace and rest. 
Do not wait for the evening to come, or 
until you can get alone, but iliere in the 
midst of the crowd, in the very rush of 
life, with the footprints of sin still fresh, 
lift up your heart to your merciful and 
ever-present Saviour, and say, ^'Lord 
Jesus, wash me now from that sin, in Thy 
precious blood, and I shall be whiter than 
snow.'' The blood of Jesus is ever at 
work, cleansing us from unconscious sin ; 
but it is our part to apply for it to cleanse 
from conscious and known sins so soon as 
we are aware of their presence in our 
lives. 

5. — Hand over to Christ every Temptation 
and Care. When you feel temptation ap- 
proaching you, as a bird, by some quick 
instinct, is aware that the hawk is hover- 
ing near, then instantly lift your heart to 
Christ for deliverance. He cannot rebuff 
or fail you. ^^He will gather you under 
His feathers, and under His wings shall 
you trust. ' ' And when any petty annoy- 
ance or heavier worry threatens to mar 
your peace, in the flash of a moment, hand 
it over to Jesus, saying, ^' Lord, I am op- 
pressed, undertake this for me." Ah! 



202 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

you sigh, I wish indeed I could live like 
this, but in the moment of need I forget 
to look. Then do this. Trust in Christ 
to keep your trusting. Look to Him so to 
abide in you as to keep your abiding. In 
the early morning intrust to Him the keep- 
ing of your soul, and then as hour suc- 
ceeds to hour expect Him to keep that 
which you have committed unto Him. 

6. — Keep in touch with Christ. Avoid the 
spirit of fault-finding, criticism, unchari- 
tableness, and anything inconsistent wdth 
His perfect love. Go where He is most 
likely to be found, either where two or 
three of His children are gathered, or 
where the lost sheep is straying. Ask Him 
to wake you morning by morning for com- 
munion and Bible-study. Make other 
times in the day, especially in the still 
hour of evening twilight, between the work 
of the day and the avocations of the even- 
ing, when you shall get alone with Him, 
telling Him all things, and reviewing the 
past under the gentle light which streams 
from His eyes. 

7. — Expect the Holy Ghost to work in^ with^ 
and for you. When a man is right with 
God, God will freely use him. There will 
rise up within him impulses, inspirations, 
strong strivings, strange resolves. These 
must be tested by Scripture and prayer, 



SEVEN RULES FOR DAIL Y LIVING. 203 

and if evidently of God they must be 
obeyed. But there is this perennial source 
of comfort. God's commands are en- 
ablings. He will never give us a work to 
do without showing exactly how and when 
to do it, and giving us the precise strength 
and wisdom we need. Do not dread to 
enter this life, because you fear that God 
will ask you to do something you cannot 
do. He will never do that. If He lays 
aught on your heart, He will do so irre- 
sistibly ; and as you pray about it the 
impression will continue to grow, so that 
presently, as you look up to know what 
He wills you to say or do, the way will 
suddenly open, and you will probably have 
said the word, or done the deed, almost un- 
consciously. Eely on the Holy Ghost to 
go before you, to make the crooked places 
straight, and the rough places smooth. Do 
not bring the legal spirit of ^^ must '' into 
God's free service. ^ ^Consider the lilies of 
the field, how they growy Let your life 
be as effortless as theirs, because your faith 
shall constantly hand over all difliculties 
and responsibilities to your ever-present 
Lord. There is no effort to the branch in 
putting forth the swelling clusters of 
grapes — the effort would be to keep them 
back. 

There may be failures in this life, but 



204 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

they will arise on the human side, not the 
Divine. Well will it be if we can instant- 
ly discover the cause of failure, and confess 
it, and seek restoration to the old peace 
and joy. After all, the sheep does not 
keep the shepherd. The shepherd keeps 
the sheep, and feeds it, and leads it, and 
makes it to lie down. What then may we 
not expecfc from our Good Shepherd ; and 
w^ho can paint the verdure of the green 
pastures, or the crystal beauty of those un- 
failing springs, to which He will lead the 
docile and trustful spirit ! 
Be that spirit thine. 



Seven Reasons 



BELIEVER'S Baptism 



SEVEN REASONS FOR BELIEVER'S 
BAPTISM. 

THE longer I live, the more impressed T 
am with the beauty and significance 
of Believer's Baptism, and I cannot 
but feel, that if it were really thoroughly 
understood by Christian people, they would 
not hesitate to obey the Lord's command. 
Indeed, they would be eager to pass 
through the simple outward rite, which 
would express their desire to be as like 
Him as they may. 

But remember at the outset that you 
may be baptized, as a believer, without be- 
coming a member of the Baptist denomina- 
tion. You may be baptized, and still con- 
tinue in communion with that Christian 
body with which you have been accustomed 
to worship. This rite is a personal matter 
between the Lord and the individual 
believer. 

Now Believer's Baptism differs from the 
ceremony which is often called Baptism, 
in two ways — First, in the Person baptized ; 
and Second, in the mode of Baptism. 

207 



208 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE, 

Firsts as to the Person Baptized. It must 
be a believer, one who believes in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. We sometimes hear people 
speak of AchiU Baptism, but the ex- 
pression is very misleading. If a man be 
as old as Methuselah, yet if he do not be- 
lieve, he has no right to be baptized; 
whilst if a little child truly trust in the 
Saviour, it has an undeniable right to bap- 
tism. Christ did not ask for intense feeling^ 
or matured character, or years of consis- 
tency, as the condition of baptism. He 
only asked faith, ' ' He that helieveth and is 
baptized.'' . . (Mark xvi. 16). The 
question in the baptism of the Eunuch 
(even though it be an interpolation) shows 
that it was the custom of the early Church 
to be sureof the/ai^A of those who w^ished 
to be baptized (Acts viii. 37). And there 
is certain evidence that those baptized by 
the Apostles were true believers in the 
Lord. {See references at the end.) The 
only sort of baptism mentioned in the Bible 
is the Baptism of Believers ; the sprinkling 
of babes, who cannot believe, may be a 
beautiful and interesting rite, but it does 
not fulfill the conditions of Believer's 
Baptism. 

Second, as to the Mode of Baptism. It must 
be by immersion, ^. e., the dipping of 
the whole body beneath the water. If 



BELIEVER'S BAPTISM. 209 

there were no other argument to prove 
that this was the ancient and scriptural 
mode, the question would be settled by an 
appeal to the %ixili chapter of the Ep, to the 
Romans, The whole point of the argument 
there is this : the waters of Baptism are a 
Grave ; Baptism is a Burial ; the Baptized 
one is buried into the likeness of Christ^ s 
death. 

If a few drops of water are sprinkled on 
the face, it is impossible to trace any re- 
semblance to that eventful moment when 
Joseph and Nicodemus bore the lifeless body 
of the Lord to burial in the garden tomb, 
amid the tears of the Maries, and the 
evening fragrance of the spring flowers, 
and hid it from the sight of man. And 
what likeness is there to the resurrection 
of Christ, unless the whole body can be 
lifted from the grave-like waters into the. 
upper air and light ? 

It is for these reasons, no doubt, that the 
prayer book of the Church of England in 
its rubric prescribes immersion as its usual 
mode of Baptism. I^o wonder that John 
baptized in ^non ^^ because there was 
much water there '' (John iii. 23) . And 
it was well that there was so ample a 
supply of water in Jerusalem, for the use of 
the priests and for temple purposes, other- 
wise the three thousand new-made converts 



210 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

could not have been baptized in one day 
(Acts ii. 41) . It was in keeping with all 
this, that so many of the ancient churches 
were furnished with Baptistries. Of course, 
Baptism does not save. It has no sacra- 
mental efficacy. If a man is not saved be- 
fore he is baptized, he certainly will not be 
saved by passing through that rite. In fact 
the ordinance will do him more harm than 
good. 

Yet Believer's Baptism is binding on 
Christians for the following reasons : — 

1. — Believers, should he Baptized j because 
the Lord Jesus was Baptized, When He was 
thirty. He mixed with the crowds that 
thronged the banks of the Jordan, and 
asked baptism at the hands of John the 
Baptist. He that baptizes with fire was 
baptized with water (Matt. iii. 13 ; John 
i. 33) . If there w^ere no other reason for Be- 
liever's Baptism, would not this be enough ? 
His footprints lead down into the deep clear 
waters, and if we would follow the Lamb 
wheresoever He goeth, we have no alter- 
native than to follow Him there. It is 
enough for the servant to be as his Lord. 
He has left us an example that we should 
follow His steps. Courtiers will imitate 
the deformities of their King ; let us 
imitate Christ in His fulfillment of all 
righteousness. 



BELIEVER'S BAPTISM. 211 

2. — Believers should be Baptized; Christ com- 
manded it. ^^ Go ye,'' said He, ^^ and teach 
all nations, baptizing them" (Matt, xxviii. 
19) . These, as the Iron Duke once said, are 
the marching orders of the Church. We 
are not at liberty to alter or discuss them, 
we must simply obey. When a Roman 
Centurion said to his servant, do this, it 
was done immediately ; and surely the Cap- 
tain of our salvation should not be worse 
served by His disciples and friends. His 
mother spoke a memorable word to the 
Church of all time, when she said to the 
servants at Cana, ^^ Whatsoever He saith 
unto you, do it." If we could see no 
meaning in this ordinance, we should submit 
to it, because He commanded it ; how 
much more should we do so, when we can 
see its beauty and use. And all the time 
there rings in our hearing, like a peal of 
silver bells, these words, ^^If ye love Me, 
keep My commandments ; " and may we 
not add, ^^His commandments are not 
grievous ? " It is not enough to talk of 
love, let us show it. 

3. — Believers should he Baptized; the Apostles 
practiced it. Wherever they went they em- 
ployed the rivers and reservoirs for this 
holy rite. In Jerusalem (Acts ii. 41); in 
Samaria (viii. 12) ; in the Desert (viii. 36) ; 
amongst the Gentiles; in the house of the 



212 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

soldier Cornelius : and in the prison of the 
jailer at Philippi (Acts x. 48 and xvi. 33) . 
Even if we had nothing else to go 
by, yet the practice of such men, who 
had so many opportunities of knowing 
the will of Christ, would be a conclusive 
guide of our duty. We refuse to stay with 
the corrupt Church of the fourth or fifth 
century ; we will press back to the first, 
when she had come fresh from the hand of 
her Lord. Her early practice shall be our 
guide. 

4. — Believers should he Baptized; it is a beauti- 
ful symbol of the forgiveness of sin, John the 
Baptist first used it for this object. '^ They 
were baptized of him in J or dsm, confessing 
their sins^^ (Matt. iii. 6) . Other meanings have 
gathered about the ordinance in addition 
to this, but this original one remains. Sin 
is constantly described as a moral stain ; 
forgiveness is as constantly spoken of as 
washing white — whiter than the wreaths of 
driven snow. In Baptism, of course, all 
dust and impurity is removed from the 
body ; and this outward cleansing is a sign 
and reminder of that which has already 
taken place in the Believer's Inner Ex- 
perience. He seems to say, ^^I have al- 
t ready plunged my sin-stained nature into 
the fountain opened for sin and unclean- 
ness ; nay, to make assurance doubly sure. 



BELIEVER'S BAPTISM, 213 

I do now by faith repeat it ; as my body is 
plunged into this crystal bath, so do I now 
plunge my whole being into the precious 
blood of Christ ; and as my flesh is made 
perfectly clean by the water, so also is my 
spirit made clean by the application of the 
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, which 
cleanseth us from all sin " (1 John i. 7) . 

5. — Believers should he Baptized; it is a Badge 
of Discipleship. This is the meaning es- 
pecially attached to it by Christ Himself. 
'' Go ye, and make disciples of all nations, 
baptizing them. ' ' The Lord looked round 
for some world-wide substance, some uni- 
versal act, which should serve as a badge 
of His disciples, and there was nothing so 
suitable as this. Water is everywhere, 
and few acts are more simple or common 
than the immersion of the bath. Alas ! 
that it has become too much the badge 
of a sect. But let us not let Christ's 
idea be obscured by man's mistake. Be- 
liever's Baptism does not necessarily mean 
that you belong to the Baptist denomina- 
tion. It means only that you are a disciple 
of Jesus Christ. There is no necessity, if 
you are baptized, that you should join the 
Baptists ; you may be baptized as a dis- 
ciple of the Saviour, and remain beneath 
any Church government you please. The 
Eunuch was baptized, but did not join a 
Church. 



214 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE, 

6. — Believers should be Baptized; it marks a 
Break with the Old and a start for a New and 
Better Life, Christ's Burial broke His 
Earthly Life into two parts. He was 
different on this side of the grave to what 
He was on the other. Physical weakness was 
replaced by Resurrection-life ; dishonor by 
glory ; weakness by power ; a natural 
body l3y a spiritual body (1 Cor. xv. 43) . 

Something like this happens when a man 
trusts Christ. He dies and is buried to his 
old sinful past. He rises in the strength 
of Christ, into a new and glorious life. 
ISTow it is well to have an outward sign to 
impress all this on the Believer and on the 
World. And the Holy Ghost led the 
Apostles to put this new meaning into 
Baptism. '' Know ye not, that so many of 
us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were 
baptized into His death ? Therefore we 
are buried with Him by baptism unto death; 
that like as Christ was raised up from the 
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we 
also should walk in newness of life '^ (Rom. 
vi. 4) . When the Lord Jesus died, and 
was buried, all those who in the thought 
of God are forever one with Him died with 
Him, and lay with Him in the grave, ris- 
ing with Him in the light of the resurrec- 
tion morning. And we have to appropriate 
these facts, and make them real by a living 



BELIE VER 'S BAPTISM. 215 

faith. Nor are they to be merely matters 
of sacred inner experience. As we set forth 
His death in the Lord's Supper, so we 
should set forth our death, in and with Him, 
in the Act of Baptism ; whereby we are visib- 
ly buried in the likeness of His death, and 
raised in the likeness of His resurrection. 
It is a confession of our desire to be dead 
indeed to the world and to sin, and alive 
unto God, through Jesus Christ the Lord 
(Col. ii. 12, andiii. 1). 

7. — Believers should he Baptized; it is the 
Profession of a Creed. When we are bap- 
tized, we profess to the world our belief of 
these distinct facts: — That Christ lived once 
upon our world in human flesh ; that He 
died for our sins according to the Scrip- 
tures, and that He was buried; and that He 
rose again the third day according to the 
Scriptures; that He is living still; and that 
His word is law. The ordinance of bap- 
tism is a standing witness to the reality of 
those facts with which it is associated; and 
we should do all in our power to maintain 
and accentuate that evidence in the face of 
an unbelieving world. 

For all these reasons, Believers should 
be Baptized. If you were baptized as a 
babe, you should be baptized again as a 
Believer (Acts xix. 3-5). Of course, as 
we cannot be saved by baptism, so we 



216 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

may be saved without it. The dying thief 
was never baptized, yet we know that he 
is in Paradise (Luke xxiii. 43) . Thousands 
stand before the throne, clad in white 
raiment, who never passed through the 
waters of Baptism. But at the same time 
those who love are not always asking what 
must I do J but what may I do. We know 
that our salvation has been finished for us 
on the Cross, and it can make no difference 
to our final salvation whether we have 
been dipped or sprinkled. But it will 
make all the difference to our enjoyment 
of the presence of our Master, whether we 
have kept all His wishes or not. Even if 
there were only the faintest possibility of 
Believer's Baptism being His dear Will, I 
would be baptized, to be on the safe side. 
He will never find fault with those who did 
all they thought to be His will, even 
though they had slighter grounds for think- 
ing so than we have for Believer's Baptism. 
He may find serious fault with those who 
did not investigate His commands for 
themselves, or postponed obedience, be- 
cause the matter was non-essential. True 
love knows no distinction between the 
essential and the non-essential. 

A FEW COMMON QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 

Is Believer^ s Baptism essential to Salvation f 
'Eo ; when our Lord Jesus died, He said 



BELIE VER 'S BAPTISM, 217 

^^ It is finished.'^ And He meant that the 
Balvation of all who should trust Him was 
complete ; and so the only thing now re- 
quired of us is a simple heart-trust in Him. 
If you can look up into His face, and say, 
^^ Lord Jesus, I trust Thee," you are 
saved, though you have never been chris- 
tened or baptized. 

Why then need we he Baptized f Because 
our Lord Jesus wishes it. If there were 
only a dim suspicion that he wished it, it 
surely would be enough. Shall we do less 
for Him than the three mighty men did 
for David, when they risked their lives to 
get Him the water of childhood's well, for 
which He expressed a passing wish? 

Supposing we were christened as Babes, need 
we he Baptized as Believers f Certainly ; be- 
cause christening does not fulfill all the 
conditions of baptism ; christening was not 
your act at all; you did not do it; you can- 
not remember it; it was done for you. Be- 
sides in Acts xix. 1-6, there were some 
baptized a second time, when they learnt 
the truth about the Baptism of Christ. 

Shoidd we have our Children Christened f 
Why should you ? Where is the scriptural 
warrant for it ? The Blood of Christ is 
quite efficacious enough to save them if 
they die in childhood, without your adding 
a few drops of water. Will He, who said, 



218 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

^^Siiffer little children to come unto Me," 
cast a babe out of His heavenly home be- 
cause it has not been sprinkled ? The 
second Adam undid the results of the sin 
of the first Adam, and He undid them 
thoroughly, and completely, for all who do 
not refuse the benefits of His work by their 
wilful sin and neglect. 

How can we live up to this high profession of 
the buried and risen life f There is only one 
way. Live a moment at a time ; and each 
moment look to Jesus to make real your 
death to the old and sinful life, and your 
resurrection to a life in which all things 
are become new. 

SELECTED TEXTS ON BAPTISM. 

Baptism shows forth our Burial and 
Resurrection with Christ. (Eom. i. 3-6.) 
(Col. ii. 12.) 

Baptism is a command^ but only to Be- 
lievers. 

Matt, xxviii. 18-19. 
Mark xvi. 15-16. 
Acts ii. 38. 
Only Believers were baptized. 
Acts ii. 41. Acts x. 47-48. 

" viii. 12. '' xvi. 14-15. 

'' viii. 13. '' xvi. 31-32-33. 

'' viii. 37-38. '' xviii. 8. 

'' ix. 17-18. '' xix. 5. 



BELIEVER'S BAPTISM. 219 

The j9ro/essio?i made in Baptism is that 
of Death to Sin, and to the World, and of 
Kesurrection to a new life of holiness unto 
God. (Kom. vi. 3-4) . 

There are only Three Households mention- 
ed in Scripture as having been baptized. 

1. — That of the Jailer, (Acts xvi. 33) . 

But to his household the Word was first 
spoken, (verse 32) . And all of them, we 
are told/ ^ were believing in God, '^ (verse 
34). 

2,— That of Stephanas, (1 Cor. i. 16). 

Of whose household it is said that they 
^^ addicted themselves to the ministry of 
the saints. '^ (1 Cor. xvi. 15). 

3. — That of Lydia, (Acts xvi. 15). 

Eegarding whose household we are 
given no particulars, but in all probability 
she was neither a wife nor a mother. Her 
household consisted of her assistants in the 
dyeing trade. 

Baptism was not instituted in the place of 
Circumcision. The literal circumcision of 
the flesh was replaced, in the teachings of 
the Apostles, by the spiritual circumcision 
^^ made without hands.^' (Col. ii. 10.) ^^Cir- 
cumcision,' ^ says St. Paul, is '' that of the 
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter.'' 
(Rom. ii. 29) . There is not a word as to 
Baptism taking its place. 

Baptism is nowhere spoken of in Script- 



-220 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

ure as a ^^ Covenant,'' or ^'Sign in the 
flesh.'' 

The ^'iVeif;" and "-Better'' Covenant, 
(Heb. viii. 6-13), is ^^ In Christ's Uood^' 
(Luke xxii. 20) , and sealed by His death, 
(Heb. ix. 15-16-17). 

The Baptism of the Spirit does not do 
away with the necessity for the Baptism of 
ivater, but is a reason for it. (Acts x. 44- 
48). 

^'And now, why tarriest thou? arise, 
and be baptized." 



The Stewardship of Money 



THE STEWARDSHIP OF MONEY. 

THE blessed truth of consecration to the 
Lord Jesus is spreading among Chris- 
tians, as dawn over the sky which it 
decks with opal and amethyst. And many 
are discovering the true law of their being 
in confessing themselves the slaves of Jesus 
Christ, The blood of His Cross was not 
only our expiation, but our purchase- 
money. We are not our own ; we are 
bought with a price. Every throb of our 
pulse, every faculty of our nature, every 
possession that we hold, is not ours, but 
His. So that each of us may nail up over 
the door of our being the words which St. 
Paul uttered amid the dash of the storm, 
'' Whose I am, and whom I serve.^^ 

But this sort of talk must be very care- 
fully watched. If it is true, it is the most 
glorious position that a human being can 
assume, and it w^ill make life one long 
summer day of blessedness. But if it is 
not true, then to use such expressions will 
soon cauterize the conscience and sere the 
heart. And it becomes us, O Christian 

223 



224 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

souls, to take stock of ourselves now and 
again, and test ourselves, to see whether 
these words are simply pious expletives in 
which we lazily indulge or whether they 
embody the governing principle of our 
lives. An apostle may become an apostate 
if he trifle with holy things. 

One of our commonest experiences is the 
handling of money. And nothing will 
sooner show whether our consecration be a 
reality or a sham, nor will anything serve 
more quickly to accentuate and enforce the 
life of consecration, than to spend our 
money daily beneath the sway of those prin- 
ciples, which it is so easy to enunciate and 
so difficult to practice. 

We have no right to look on money as our ab- 
solute property. On every British coin in 
your possession you may read the letters 
b. G. (by the grace of God) . Every coin 
is yours as the gift of God ; as much so as 
if He had literally placed it in your open 
palm, saying, ^^Take this, my child, with 
your Father's love.'' The reasonableness 
of this is evident if we remember that all 
things owe their existence to the makership 
of God. ^^All that is in the heaven and in 
the earth is Thine." ^' Thou hast created 
all things, for Thy pleasure they are and 
were created." '^Both riches and honor 
come of Thee." And David was amply 



THE STEWARDSHIP OF MONEY. 225 

justified when, as the spokesman of his 
people, who had just made a marvelous 
offering for the house of the Lord, he said, 
^^0/ Thine oivn have we given Thee.^^ 

You tell me that j^ou earn j^our money by 
the sweat of your brow. Every penn}^ is 
the result of the putting forth of your mus- 
cular or mental power. Granted; but 
^' thou shalt remember the Lord thy God ; 
for it is He that giveth thee power to get 
wealth.' ' He wards off paralyzing disease. 
He maintains the mind in perfect balance. 
Were He to touch the sinew of your 
strength, instantly you would become help- 
less to do another stroke to bring grist to 
the mill. 

Besides, is it not our daily profession that 
we have devoted ourselves, with all we are 
and we have, to Him? Just as many a 
loving wife, richly dowered, prefers to have 
no distinction between her property and 
her husband's, and makes all over to his 
name, so we have professed to give our- 
selves and our all to Christ. We have 
taken His name, and our bank-books, our 
stocks and shares, our houses and busi- 
nesses, have now written over them, in 
mystic characters, the initials of His name, 
the insignia of His glory, the brand-mark 
of His possession. Obviously, therefore, we 
have no right to look on our money as our 



226 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

absolute property. By our deed of gift it is 
His. 

Is our daily practice on a level with this prin- 
ciple f It is a trick with little children, in 
a spasm of generosity, to give to those whom 
they love some dear possession, and to take 
it back again ; or, at least, to use it without 
reference to the ownership they had con- 
ferred. And it is thus that too many Chris- 
tians act toward Christ. They ask Him to 
consider all their possessions as His ; but 
within an hour they are spending them as 
much their own as ever. They determine 
how much to give to a collection without 
once asking Him what He desires. They 
buy any extravagant knick-knack in a shop 
without considering that they have no right 
to spend His money in such things without 
an express warrant. They make their plans 
for the increase of their rent, for additional 
and needless outlay in their homes, and for 
some long and expensive excursion, without 
laying their suggestions before their Master 
to know His will. Either they ought never 
to have professed so much, or they are cul- 
tivating a habit of unreality, which will 
breed disaster to themselves and will bring 
shame upon their principles. If our money 
is really His, by His gift originally to us, 
and by our subsequent dedication to Him, 
surely He ought to have a voice in its ex- 



THE STEWARDSHIP OF MONEY, 227 

penditure. And the concession of that right 
to Him would speedily make our consecra- 
tion real. 

Do not suppose that it is your duty to give 
everything away. This would be an obvious 
mistake. It is our duty to provide for our 
own (1 Tim. v. 8) and to live in the sphere 
in which God has called us, and which in it- 
self is a most precious talent (1 Cor. vii. 20) . 
It is also clearly within our right to hold a 
certain amount as capital, for the increase 
of business and for the employment of la- 
bor. Capital may be as much considered 
the gift of God as any other of His gifts, and 
may be used for Him. And where a capi- 
talist employs his property judiciously in 
furnishing work to others, taking no more 
of the profit than is the legitimate recom- 
pense of his time and knowledge and direct- 
ing genius, and allowing his employes to 
share with him the common overplus ; then, 
surely, that man is doing more real good in 
the world than if he gave away his property, 
distributing a pound each to as many poor 
families as he could find. But though I 
do not plead that consecrated Christians 
should give all away, I do insist upon it 
that they should regard all their money as 
Christ's, and spend every penny of it be- 
neath His direction and in harmony with 
His will. 



228 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

We are the Stewards of the Lord Jesus. This 
is His own comparison (Matt. xxv. 14). 
And it would be a happy thing if we could 
all come to look upon our several opportu- 
nities and faculties of doing good — power 
of speech, or thought, or writing, or the ac- 
quisition of money — in the same way as a 
faithful bailiff or steward looks on his mas- 
ter's goods. 

May not the case be truly stated thus ? 
Suppose that you are a man of large landed 
estates or other property. Circumstances 
compel you to go for an indefinite period 
beyond the seas. Before you go, you sum- 
mon your steward, in whom you place im- 
plicit trust, and tell him that every quarter, 
when he has collected the rents and received 
the ordinary revenue, he may deduct from 
them the amount which he requires for the 
comfortable maintenance and education of 
his family, and for all needful expenditure; 
and that he shall expend the whole of the 
remainder for you, in helping some of your 
poor relations and in forwarding other pro- 
jects in which you are interested. But in a 
short time you find, to your grief and as- 
tonishment, that, after you had left, the man 
whom you trusted suddenly launched out 
into an immense outlay on his house and 
equipage, on his servants and children, vy- 
ing with the great ones of the land, and 



THE STEWARDSHIP OF MONEY. 229 

doling out a miserable pittance of 3rf. per 
quarter to your relations, and of a guinea 
per year to j^our cherished institutions. 
Would you not feel that there had been a 
great breach of trust, and that instant steps 
should be taken to supersede the unfaithful 
steward in his stewardship? And yet is 
not this precisely the way in which many 
of us are treating our Lord's money to-day? 
Do we not use the bulk of it for ourselves, 
giving to Him and His work the chance 
coins w^hich we may be able to spare or the 
subscriptions which we are obliged to give 
to maintain a character amongst our fel- 
lows? And there is therefore fulfilled with 
respect to us some ancient words, as true 
to-day as ever (Haggai i. 2 ; see also Mala- 
chi iii. 8-10). In how many houses and 
places of worship are those words being 
sadly verified ! 

What a contrast to this is supplied in the cases 
of others^ living obscurely amongst us, but 
millionaires in the sight of Heaven ! I 
have been credibly informed of one, whose 
income is $10,000 per annum, but who lives 
on $1,000 and administers $9,000 for the 
Lord's service ; of another, whose income is 
$40,000, but who lives on $1,250 and gives 
away the remainder ; of yet another, a 
governess, who, out of the $500 that she 
earns, keeps $250 and gives away the other 



230 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

half; while another who earns $7,500 lives 
on $500 and exercises a wise stewardship 
over the rest. A friend of my own, who 
has long since made a comfortable compe- 
tence, is remaining in business for the pur- 
pose of devoting ail his profits to the cause 
of Christ. As surely as some have speak- 
ing or writing faculties, which they are 
bound to use for God's service, so others 
have business faculties, which they are 
equally required to exercise for the same 
purpose ; not wrapping them to waste in the 
buried napkin. What would you think of 
a minister who ceased preaching for no 
other reason than that he had enough to 
live upon? And surely, if a man has no 
other talent than a business faculty, he had 
better go on employing that, rather than do 
nothing, for the Redeemer's glory. 

There remain two or three simple rules, 
which may gather up into a practical shape 
the conclusions to which we have come. 

1. — het us consecrate ourselves afresh to our 
Redeemer. Let each reader of these words 
thoughtfully take that step which inspired 
David Livingstone in his mighty career ! 
His last birthday but one was spent far 
away from home and friends, in the wild 
jungle, surrounded by those degraded Afri- 
cans that lay so near his heart; and in his 
diary he penned these touching words : 



THE STEWARDSHIP OF MONEY. 231 

'^My Jesus, My King, my Life, my All, I 
again dedicate my whole self to Thee." 
What better could you do than take your 
diary in hand, and write these very words ? 
and, if you like, add an inventory of all 
that you include within their embrace ; and 
then append your signature. Kemember 
that scene in the churchyard of the Grey- 
friars, in Edinburgh, when the Covenanters 
signed their names in blood drawn from 
their hearts. Be as earnest as they were, 
and trust Christ to keep you true. 

2. — Determine beneath the eye of Christ how 
much you should legitimately spend on yourself. 
There are several things to be considered, 
among the first of which is Life-insurance. 
Then rent, taxes, maintenance, education, 
and such-like. ISTone of us can determine 
these things for another. They must be 
settled calmly under the Master's ej^e. Not 
in days of panic or pressure, for at such 
times we are not likely to form a correct 
estimate. But in times when we can quietly 
calculate what Christ would have us ex- 
pend ; always remembering that we have 
no right to presume on windfalls or mir- 
acles ; or to provide for ostentation and ex- 
cess ; or to go beyond our income ; or to 
risk running into debt. But when once we 
have prayerfully ascertained our position, 
we should maintain it, unless we have very 



232 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

clear tokens that we are to exchange it for 
another, whether better or worse. Many 
Christians, directly their income begins to 
increase, launch out into increased expen- 
diture ; whereas it may be that the increase 
is to be devoted to the cause of Christ. Ah ! 
what moral ruin has come to families, be- 
cause of the lavish waste of Christian homes! 
Other Christians, in times of straitness, be- 
gin to reduce necessary expenditure and to 
sell articles of use. It may be right to do 
so ; but, on the whole, one would need to 
be clearly led by God's Spirit in all such 
matters. It may be His will to maintain 
them as they are, but by other means until 
prosperity is restored to them. Our only 
care should be to please God, and never to 
run into debt. Leave the provision of each 
meal to Him who feeds the birds and clothes 
the flowers (Eom. xiii. 8 and Matt. vi. 25) . 
3. — Give away a stated proportion of all you 
own or earn. It may seem needless to insert 
this caution to those who should use all for 
Christ, but it is really most important, and 
for this reason : Our hearts are weak and 
fickle, and we are in danger of making so 
good a provision for ourselves that the 
Lord's surplus will be next to nothing. We 
remember so vividly the amount we give 
away that it bulks up largely beyond our 
mind ; and we imagine that we are gener- 



THE STEWARDSHIP OF MONEY, 233 

oiis, until we see in figures how small a pro- 
portion our charity bears to our income. 
To guard against this, it is well always to 
put aside a certain part for the Lord before 
we begin to divide up the rest, so that His 
share ixiay be as safe as our rent. This will 
not prevent us from still considering that 
the whole is His, or from administering the 
overplus for the furtherance of those objects 
that lie near His heart. 

It is not within my province to say what 
proportion of our income we should statedly 
set apart for God. The patriarch gave a 
tenth ; and surely the noon of Christianity 
should not inspire less benevolence than the 
twilight (Gen. xxviii. 22). And it has 
been calculated that the Jews gave in all at 
least one-fifth of their income to the main- 
tenance of their religion. But of course the 
proportion we can statedly set apart for 
Christ must vary with our circumstances. 
A man, when his family is young, may be 
able to give only a tenth, who, when his 
expenses are less, can as easily dedicate a 
fifth or a third. Let each be fully pre- 
suaded in his own mind. Only let this 
principle be observed, that there be a stated 
proportion given out of every pound, 
whether the income be received weekly, or 
monthly, or quarterly, or whether it be 
only realized at the end of the year. Every 



234 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE, 

business man knows pretty well what his 
income is, else how can he fix the sum given 
in for income tax ? Let him deal as faith- 
fully with God as with the Government 
officer ; or let him expend during the cur- 
rent year a proportion of his income made 
during the previous one. So shall we obey 
the spirit at least of the Apostolic exhor- 
tation : '' Upon the first day of the week let 
every one of you lay by him in store as God 
hath prospered him'' (1 Cor. xvi. 2). 
When, then, we are called upon to give, it 
will be a luxury to administer wisely the 
Lord's money, and all the remainder will 
seem sanctified through the dedication of 
the firstfruits (Prov. iii. 9-10). 

4. — Sometimes let us make a special offering 
to the Lord Jesus. We can only give Him 
what is His. And yet, though a wife has 
nothing of her own, she can make presents 
to her husband of what he gave her, and 
which she might have legitimately^ used for 
herself, but which she has saved until it 
grew into a worthy gift for her spouse. 
Love must give of that which costs her 
something. There are no gifts so precious 
in the eyes of the loved one as those which 
mean planning and self-sacrifice. And 
think you not that it delights the heart of 
our Lord to receive at our hands love-to- 
kens; precious ornaments and jewels ; ala- 



THE STEWARDSHIP OF MONEY, 235 

baster boxes, reserved once for self-adorn- 
ment, but now gladly surrendered ; articles 
of beauty and value, which we had hidden 
from the light of day, but which we present 
to Him, to show that our love is strong, 
personal, and self-forgetting? ^^He is 
worthy to receive riches." And the chief 
zest of such gifts is in their secrecy from all 
human eyes — a personal transaction be- 
tween the Master and the loving heart. 
^^ That thine alms may be in secret." 

5. — Be careful to put the Lord^s money aside. 
We must not trust in our memories, or 
generalities. We must be minute, and spe- 
cific, and careful, some having a bag, others 
a box, into which the Lord's portion is care- 
fully put ; some having a separate banking 
account ; and all having some kind of led- 
ger account, where we may put down what 
we receive and spend for Christ, that there 
may be no embezzlement, however inad- 
vertent, of that which is not ours. 

Of the rewards that will accrue we have 
no time to speak. Wasteful and harmful 
expenditure will be checked. Evil ways of 
getting money will be abandoned. Treas- 
ures will be laid up in the heavens. Bags 
which wax not old will be provided. The 
Lord's treasuries will be filled to overflow- 
ing. There will no longer be the sad re- 
fusal of young and eager hearts because 



236 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

there are no funds to send them forth to 
their coveted life-work in distant lands. 
The gulf between rich and poor will be 
bridged by many deeds of ministry and 
helpfulness. Whilst, better than all, the 
Master's voice will ring like music through 
the heart, ^ ^ AVell done, thou good and faith- 
ful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord.'^ 



DoNT Drift 



DONT DRIFT! 

YES, it is the drifting that is most to be 
feared. Men don^t become atheists 
and swindlers at a leap. For every 
one who resolutely sets his face against 
God, there are hundreds who drift from 
Him. 

An illustration occurred once in my own 
holiday experiences, which taught me to 
estimate fully the power of the tide to 
drift. We were staying on the coast of 
North Wales, and were desirous of visit- 
ing an island famous for its ruins and tra- 
ditions. Nothing seemed easier than to 
cross the narrow straits which lay between 
it and the beach on which we stood. But 
as soon as we had got beyond the jutting 
headland, we found ourselves caught by a 
strong current, which persistently carried 
us out of our course, and would have 
drifted us, had we yielded to it, far down 
the coast. It took four of us four hours 
and a half of hard rowing to cross the 
straits which, with a flowing tide, we re- 
traversed at night in about half an hour. 

239 



240 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

Never since have I ignored the power of 
the current, so gentle, so imperceptible, so 
pleasant to yield to, so difficult to resist. 
And often have I been reminded of the 
episode,when I have seen young men drift- 
ing before the currents of moral influence 
on the great ocean of life. 

Young men come up to our great centers 
of population from holy and blessed homes, 
where they have been born and bred. 
They are nice, amiable, well-meaning fel- 
lows, with no intention of going wrong, 
though perhaps with no very strong reso- 
lution to go right. The last words of ad- 
vice from father or mother ring in their 
ears, urging them to keep up the good 
habits in which they had been trained from 
childhood ; and they intend to conform to 
them. 

If they fall in with a strong religious 
influence, it is not at all unlikely that all 
will turn out well. But if they go into 
some establishment or house where there 
is a fast, gay set, the Lord's day unkept, 
where filthy allusions pollute the talk, and 
gambling fills the leisure hours, after the 
first momentary shock is over they give 
themselves up to the strong prevailing cur- 
rent, and begin insensibly, but swiftly, to 
drift. It is not necessary at first that 
they should commit some flagrant sin ; it 



DON'T DRIFT! 241 

is enough that they cease to resist the insid- 
ious influences around. 

Young men, is this a true picture of 
your condition ? If so, heed the advice of 
an elder brother, who has himself passed 
through city life, and who gathers up all 
the advice which he has to give in the 
words — DonH drift! 

DonH drift into a loose way of keeping Sun- 
day. When you are away from home you 
do not know where to go, what church to 
attend, what minister to hear. If you 
enter a place of worship, no one knows 
and perhaps no one welcomes you. You 
miss the familiar faces and voices of your 
childhood's earliest memories. You feel 
that your absence from that congregation, 
and indeed from any other, for the rest of 
the day would not be noticed, and so you 
stay away. Your pursuits may be quite 
innocent ; and yet your absence from God's 
house, according to your olden practice, 
and without suflicient reason, is the first 
symptom of yielding to the swift current 
which urges you to drift. 

My advice is to go to the several places 
of worship in the near neighborhood of 
your residence. Go once or twice to ascer- 
tain the character of the ministry and of 
the work carried on ; and then attach your- 
selves to the one you find most helpful. 



242 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

Make for the minister direct, tell him who 
you are, whence you have come, and your 
intention of settling down in his congre- 
gation ; and if he be a true man, he will 
be only too glad to welcome you. If he 
doesn't, I would advise you to betake 
yourself to some one who will. 

When you settle in a new place, be sure 
also to find out the nearest Young Men's 
Christian Association ; ask for the secre- 
tary, and he will introduce you to friends, 
and home, and many things young men 
want. 

DonH drift into loose companionships. A 
man is made or marred by his friends. As 
fish take on the mottling of the ground on 
which they lie, and as butterflies resemble 
the flowers over which they hover, so do 
we become like those whom we choose for 
our companions. Don't drift into famil- 
iarity with any man till you are pretty sure 
of him, and have asked for God to show 
yOu his true character. 

Beware of the man who goes in for a lot 
of showy jewelry, and professes to be able 
to show you a thing or two about life. He 
perhaps knows a little too much, and 
wants to see life at your expense. And 
when you have spent your last shilling, 
and he is tired of you, he will cast you off 
without mercy. 



DON'T DRIFT! 243 

Beware of the man who talks slightingly 
of mother, father, home, or of women gen- 
erally. Many men ridicule any allusion to 
the purity and tenderness of the home- 
circle, and apparently have no belief that 
woman can be other than the toy or victim 
of man — never his equal and confidante 
and friend. Beware of such men ; the 
probability is that they have only lived to 
tempt the weaker sex, whom they now tra- 
duce ; and that their vices have necessarily 
excluded them from the society of the pure 
and virtuous. 

Beware of the man who professes him- 
self too deeply versed in the science of the 
day to believe in the Bible, and who ridi- 
cules those who do. It is an easy thing to 
ask a question which might take days of 
teaching and investigation to answer. 
Destructive criticism is child's play. Any 
fool can fire a cathedral which would take 
centuries in building ; and any street-arab 
may smash a window which neither mod- 
ern wealth nor art can reconstruct. True 
wisdom is not destructive, but construc- 
tive. A man has no more right to steal 
away or spoil your faith than he has to 
deprive you of your eyesight or rob you of 
your purse. And if he attempt it, he be- 
trays a dangerous character, of which you 
do well to beware. 



244 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

DonH drift into extravagant expenditure. 
Better live on oatmeal porridge and brown 
bread, than spend more than you can afford 
or drift into debt. The pleasure of a day's 
outing or of an evening's gaiety has a nasty 
after -taste, when for weeks or months you 
have to avoid certain people because you 
owe them money which you cannot repay. 

It is a temptation for us all to imitate 
the people above us in the social scale, but 
it is a miserable life to live, and very un- 
satisfactory, because we generally imitate 
their weaknesses and vices rather than their 
virtues. And yet it appears to afford much 
passing pleasure for the poor clerk to dress 
and speak wdth the airs of a young lord. 
One evening's conquest of the bar-maids 
and bar-loafers must be a rare luxury ! 
But this kind of thing cannot be done 
without money. You cannot throw much 
money away out of a pound per week. 
And the result is, that a young man some- 
times spends in a single evening money 
enough to fill his heart with anxiet}^ for 
many aweary day, and is perhaps tempted 
to take money which does not belong to 
him, in order to stay pressing demands, 
and in hope of the opportunity of repay- 
ment, which never comes. 

DonH drift into habits of gambling. There 
is plenty of it all around us ; and a man 



DON'T DRIFT! 245 

feels rather lonely when he refuses to join 
in. I felt so some time ago on board an 
ocean-steamer, when I seemed to be nearly 
the only one that refused to join in a 
sweepstakes. The workshops and estab- 
lishments are comparatively rare which 
are not filled with the buzz of excitement 
on the eve of some great race. And there 
are places in most large towns, clubs and 
suchlike, where men have the opportunity 
of losing fortunes, if only they are fools 
enough. 

It is not chiefly the love of money that 
urges men to bet, but the excitement of 
the chance, which relieves the monotony 
of their otherwise aimless existence. We 
can form no conception ef the fascinations 
of this kind of life, as we look on them 
from without ; just as we cannot realize 
the irresistible force of the whirlpool till 
we are being sucked into its gurgling vor- 
tex. But it is surely needless to fling our- 
selves into them to see what they are like. 
Once in, we shall probably find it impossi- 
ble to get out. And we may get in almost 
imperceptibly. To deposit the first coin in a 
raffle or sweepstakes, to stake the first 
shilling on a horse, to lay a bet of a pair 
of gloves — these things may seem trifles, 
but they are a yielding to the outer rim of 
the whirlpool. Of course it is easy to 



246 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIEE. 

break from them. But they may lead to 
other things, only removed from them by 
a single hair's-breadth, which will lead to 
others, and still others beyond. How much 
better to put the foot down and refuse the 
first ! You mean to refuse the second ; but 
if you are going to refuse at all, it will be 
unspeakably easier to refuse at first than 
afterwards. 

Betting is a bad thing. It undoes so- 
ciety as the white ant the wooden houses 
of the tropics. Men who bet care for little 
else. Love and home are sacrificed to the 
companions of the betting-ring. Business 
is neglected, because they live in the fever- 
ish hope of coming in for a windfall, and 
of getting money without giving an equiv- 
alent of any sort. 

DonH drift into habits of excessive drinking. 
Nothing is easier than to do this. The 
tides of strong drink are running swiftly 
through our streets, and every corner pub- 
lic-house is a jetty from which men may 
enter the boats and launch out upon the 
current. A few may enter it and yet 
escape. But for an enormous number there 
is little hope of escape, when once fairly 
afloat on the fascinating but perilous 
waters. 

They say that smoking leads to drink- 
ing. If so, it would be w^ell to avoid the 



D ON' T DRIFT I 247 

first cigarette. Some of us have so many 
natural appetites to keep in order that we 
are thankful never to have awoke the 
habit of smoking, which seems a very 
masterful one, and terribly apt to become 
a tyrant. It would be foreign from my 
purpose to call smoking a sin. What right 
have I to add another to the ten com- 
mandments? But it certainly is to most 
people a ^^ weight." In many cases it is 
the innocent little boy which, when once 
in the house, opens the door to a gang 
of thieves. 

You are not specially a sinner, dear young 
fellow, because 3'ou smoke. But is it wise 
to begin a habit for which you cannot plead 
any good reason except that others do it, 
and which may lead you into drinking, bad 
companionships, and other things? 

But other things drift a man into drink- 
ing habits. Loafing about the streets in 
the evenings ; drinking beer without at the 
same time eating solid victuals ; standing 
treat to your companions, because you want 
to look large in their esteem, and with the 
certainty that you will have to drink what 
they provide in return ; doing business over 
a wine-bar ; spending your evenings in 
places like music-halls, where drink passes 
round, and where the proprietor looks 
shyly on those who don't patronize the 



248 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

buffet — all these are easy methods of drift- 
ing into drink. IS'o man means to be a 
drunkard when he starts drinking. Those 
who are now in the agony of delirium were 
once as pure and true as you ; but they were 
carried down an almost insensible gradient. 
Beware of their fate, and don't follow their 
earlier steps, lest you acquire a momentum 
you cannot arrest, and go down to hell. 
There is no better safeguard to a young man 
in life than the pledge of total abstinence. 
He perhaps may not sign a pledge at a 
meeting, but he can write one in his own 
chamber, and resolve, by God's help, never 
to touch this accursed foe of human hearts 
and happiness and homes. 

DonH drift into habits of imfpiirity. In us 
all there are appetites and desires which 
are beautiful and innocent enough when 
kept in their right place ; but they are very 
reluctant to be kept there, and are ever 
chafing to ascend the throne of the being 
and assume the mastership of the life. It 
is pleasant to allow them thus to ascend, 
but who shall depict the horrors of the 
wreckage of all that is bright and beautiful 
and happy in the life of the miserable vic- 
tim who has yielded to their first sugges- 
tions ? 

Beware of drifting into secret sins, wit- 
nessed by no eye but God's. Beware of the 



DON'T DRIFT! 249 

society of those who are familiar with the 
ways of darkness and impurity. Beware 
of spectacles and pictures, of amusements 
and books, that excite the lower passions. 
Never go to a place to which you could not 
take your mother or sister. E'ever get fa- 
miliar with a girl whom you could not in- 
troduce to the purest woman you know. 
Never treat a girl in another way than you 
would like a man to treat your own sister. 

It is not necessary to yield to temptation. 
Abstinence from strong drink and excessive 
animal food ; plenty of gymnastic, cycling, 
and muscular exercise ; hard mattresses, 
cold bathing, early rising, will answer many 
of the questions which so often perplex 
young men. And there is better than all — 
the power and purity of Jesus, which you 
may claim and use in all moments of need. 
One earnest, believing cry for help will bring 
Him near. And when He enters the soul 
impurity can no more stand against His in- 
dwelling than straw before fire, or darkness 
before day. 

DonH drift into an imprudent marriage. It 
is well when a young man meets a good 
girl. I never object to an early engagement 
when the couple are well-mated, though I 
would urge a deferred marriage until the 
comforts of a home can be provided either 
by the love of friends or by the results of 



250 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

united savings. And no home is so sweet 
as that which has been chosen and furnished 
by the taste and self-denial of those who are 
to enter it. 

You ought not to choose your life-partner 
only from seeing her in evening dress or in 
company. All sweet faces do not tell a per- 
fectly true story of the inner temper. You 
need a wife who knows something more 
than how to play one or two set pieces on 
the piano or sing half a dozen songs. The 
girl who understands all the details of 
household management, who knows how all 
should be done though she may never have 
to do it, who has been good to her parents 
and younger brothers and sisters, who 
dresses simply and neatly, who knows how 
to make a shilling do a shilling's work, who 
is deeply religious — that is the kind of 
woman who will make a good wife ; and till 
God sends her to you don't flirt or play with 
a girl's affections or lead any to think that 
you care for them when you don't. 

DonH drift into a mere money-making ma- 
chine. Some seem to live for nothing else 
than add a few more coins to their rising 
pile ; and to do this they sacrifice all that 
makes life sweet and noble and honorable. 
Have a lofty aim. Spend your life for the 
best results. Be more eager to get up 
than to get on. There is no harm in am- 



D ON' T DRIFT! 251 

bition when it is directed to doing the 
best you can to make the world better and 
those around you happier ; but it is a de- 
testable passion to seek money for money ^s 
sake. Your aim must be to seek first the 
things that make for righteousness and 
peace, for God's glory and man's good. Be 
faithful in these, in your small sphere, and 
it will be almost certain that you will be 
put into a position where you will have the 
chance of being faithful also in much. 

You tell me that you cannot resist the 
strong current on which you are already 
launched, and that you have already com- 
menced to drift. But it is not too late. 
Send up a cry of distress to the Lord Jesus, 
asking Him to come on board your boat. 
He is stronger than the mightiest current. 
And then, if you like to put it so, give Him 
the towing-line, that he may take it in His 
hand and tow you up the strong stream to 
His own bright Home. 

There is no better policy, dear young 
brother, than to give your heart to Jesus. 
Take Him as your Saviour, Master, and 
Friend. Ask Him to live in your soul, 
making you pure and sweet and strong. 
Follow Him in His footsteps of self-sacri- 
fice for the sake of others. Go to no place 
where you cannot take Him also. Let His 
friends be yours, and see that yours are 



252 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE . 

His. Ask Him to put you in that position 
where you can please and glorify Him best ; 
and also remember that prayer and waiting 
will untie the stoutest knots and unravel 
the greatest difficulties. 



Why Sign the Pledge? 



WHY SIGN THE PLEDGE ? 

THE feeling in favor of Total Abstinence 
from Strong Drink is rapidly growing 
in our beloved motherland. By the 
efforts and self-sacrifice of tens of thous- 
ands, a strong public sentiment is being 
formed, like a mighty Breakwater. An 
arrest is being placed on the onward march 
of drunkenness ; and many a bark, battered 
by the fury of Passion and Self-indulgence, 
is safely moored in the haven, sheltered 
from utter ruin, and able to repair its ter- 
rible wreckage. Happy are we who live in 
such a time. Let us do our best to build 
our few stones into this great Breakwater, 
which is only made up by the small work 
of unknown and soon-forgotten builders. 

One important means by which so much 
has been done has been the use of the 
Pledge. Humanly speaking, if it had not 
been for the Pledge, the present sentiment 
in favor of Total Abstinence would not have 
been possible. And it will be a great mis- 
take if the signing of the Pledge should ever 
fall into disuse or become an object of con- 

255 



256 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

tempt. We must not kick away the ladder 
by which we have climbed up. 

And yet in some quarters there is a dis- 
position to think and speak lightly of the 
Pledge. "^ Oh/' says one, ^^I can keep tee- 
total without signing your Pledge.' ' ^^Yes/' 
says another, ^'it is childish to sign away 
your freedom.'' ^^Itmaybeall very well," 
says a third, ^^for some to do it, but it is 
not so for me." 

Why, then, should we sign the Pledge of 
Total Abstinence? 

Sign the Pledge: it is your protest against 
Strong Drink, It is time for every thought- 
ful person to enter a solemn protest against 
Strong Drink, which, every year, is inflict- 
ing such awful havoc among our race. Who 
can be indifferent to the woes it brings on 
hearts and homes, on villages and towns, 
on countries and continents? Well may 
the Hindoos call it ' ' Shame-water. ' ' There 
is not a house in which you may not find its 
slain. There is not a newspaper that does 
not record its diabolical outrages. There 
is not a public officer that could not bear 
damning evidence against it. England can 
never be the ^ ' Merrie England ' ' of olden 
times till Drink has been dethroned. AVe 
cannot do much, but let us do what we can. 
We have a voice, a right to cry aye or nay, 
a power to assent or protest. Let us use 



WHY SIGN THE PLEDGE? 257 

them by all means on the right side. And 
if we cannot express our feelings in any 
other way, let us at least sign a solemn 
declaration on paper that we will never 
again touch the cruellest foe that ever rev- 
elled in human tears and blood. 

Sign the Fledge : it will benefit your health. 
Alcohol is not more necessary to health 
than any other chemical or medicinal agent. 
It excites the heart, hinders digestion, dis- 
turbs the liver, and stupefies the brain. It 
gives a momentary glow and stimulus, but 
you have to pay for them afterward by an 
inevitable lessening of vital heat, and ani- 
mal power, and mental force. Even in 
moderate quantities it acts as an irritant 
and a poison. The athlete, in training for 
a boat-race, a prize-fight, or a running 
match, must absolutely forego the use of 
Alcohol ; and if men do not want it for such 
extraordinary exertions, why do you want 
it for ordinary ones ? Our recent expedi- 
tions in Abyssinia, the Transvaal, and 
Egypt prove that if a General wishes his 
troops to perform forced marches, or to un- 
dergo unusual fatigues, he must substitute 
coffee for grog. The extremes of the Arc- 
tic circle and the Tropical sun are best en- 
dured on cold water, as the e:^perience of 
many explorers and travelers proves. The 
tables of Insurance Offices show that 100 



258 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

moderate drinkers die for every 73 abstain- 
ers, and many offices have a special section, 
to give abstainers the benefits of insurance 
at a less price. It would be a perfect reve- 
lation to some of you who read these words 
if you would give Total Abstinence a trial ; 
your appetite would be better, your minds 
would be clearer, your nerves would be 
stronger, and your whole system would get 
fitness and tone. 

Sign the Fledge : it will save your time. We 
have only one short life to live, and we can- 
not afford to fling the diamond moments 
into the rushing stream beside us. How 
manj^ days in the fore-part of the week are 
spent by our working- classes in public- 
houses, which are a dead loss to them, and 
their families, and the country ! How many 
hours are spent by clerks and commercial 
travelers, in the course of the week, at the 
bars of railway stations and restaurants, 
which might be sown with the seeds of gol- 
den harvest ! How many evenings are 
worse than wasted in convivial company, 
which might be spent in innocent and 
health- giving recreation, or in acquiring 
knowledge which would unlock many a 
shut door ! From all this you would es- 
cape if you signed the Pledge. 

Sign the Pledge : it will save your purse. Sit 
down and calculate how much you spend 



WHY SIGN THE PLEDGE? 259 

per day in Drink, not only for yourself, but 
also for those whom you treat. It will 
amount to a respectable sum in the course 
of the year. Add to this the money you 
might earn in the time you now lose. Add 
to this all the sums squandered wastefully 
in the company into which habits of drink- 
ing lead you. And when all is put to- 
gether, would it not make a nice nest-egg 
against a rainy day, or for illness and old 
age? I often say to those who sign my 
Pledge-cards that there is a $500 Bank- 
note hidden inside the double card-board. 

Sign the Pledge : it will save you from temp - 
tation. You have no intention of becoming 
a Drunkard ; you scorn the thought. But 
there is a risk of your becoming one, so long 
as you tamper with the Drink. You take 
it now for the sake of society, but you will 
come to take it for its own sake. You can- 
not be sure that daily dram-drinking may 
not do for you what it has done for myriads, 
in exciting a thirst, now perhaps dormant, 
but which, when once aroused, will be un- 
satiable ! Wise men, good men, strong 
men have been mastered by that awful 
thirst, who no more expected such a thing 
than you do. Is it not folly, then, for you 
to run the risk of creating it ? Why not 
stop at once, before that thirst has been 
aroused ? 



260 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

Yoa tell me that it seems hard for you 
to do without the Drink. Then that is a 
sure sign that the accursed appetite has got 
a foothold within you. Spring off the car 
ere it rushes down the incline. Run the 
boat into a creek ere it is caught by the 
rapids above the falls. Force the cloven 
foot back out of the door before the demon 
has time to thrust his whole body into 
your heart and life. Do it at once. Do 
it now. You ask not to be led into temp- 
tation, then don't go into it. Public-houses 
are well-called ^ ^ shades ' ' and ' ' vaults ^ ' : 
they are the shades of death, and vaults 
for the burial of all that is noblest and 
best in men. Avoid them. Pass them by. 
Refuse to enter them unless the Good 
Shepherd sends you there to find a lost 
sheep. 

Sign the Pledge : it will make a definite start- 
ing point in your history. In all efforts after 
a better life it is well to have some land- 
mark or time-mark, to which to look back 
and from which to date. There is a sort 
of satisfaction in being able to point to a 
mental stone-cairn, or crease-line, or white- 
painted post, standing out on the moor- 
land of life, and to say, ^^Upto that point I 
lived a selfish, evil life, but since then I 
have tried to run fair and well, by the help 
of God.''. 



WHY SIGN THE PLEDGE? 261 

With some it is a sermon ; with others 
it is a birthday, a death, an entry in the 
diary, or a New Year's Eve; with others 
it is the visit of some Gospel Temperance 
Advocate to their town. But in many 
cases the same purpose is served by sign- 
ing the Pledge. The date of that Pledge- 
card is a birthday, a new start, a begin- 
ning of a new era in the story of the soul ; 
and it very often leads to the second step 
of Faith in Christ. 

Sign the Pledge : it makes a strong obligation. 
When a man gives up the Drink, he must 
do all that can be done to strengthen his 
resolution. If he simply makes a resolu- 
tion, he feels at liberty to withdraw from 
it if he choose. But if he double-knots 
his resolution with a solemn promise to 
which he has put his hand, then he feels 
bound by the most solemn obligations. 
He cannot think of breaking his word. Pie 
dare not violate his plighted troth. And 
in the moment of temptation, his self- 
respect, his love for truth, his desire to be 
a man of his word, his written vow, will be 
a strong reason for saying No. 

A gentlemen who signed the Pledge- 
card recently, said that during the whole 
of the next day he carried it in his pocket, 
and took it out fifteen times to remind him 
that he had put his hand to a promise 



262 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

which he dared not violate, and could not 
retract. 

Sign the Pledge: it will give a sufficient 
answer to those who tempt yon to drink. There 
is no answer that a man can give so good 
as this. If he refuses because he is hot, 
he will be advised to drink to get cool. If 
he refuses because he is cold, he will be 
recommended to drink to get warm. If he 
refuses because he cannot afford it, his 
companions will gladly treat him. If he 
refuses because he is not well, there is no 
ailment to which flesh is heir for which in- 
toxicating drinks are not prescribed as a 
certain cure. Men who are well, drink till 
they are ill ; and then drink to get them- 
selves well again, l^one of these excuses 
avail, but if a man says, ^^I have signed 
the Pledge," they may think him a fool, 
but they cannot say that he has not given 
a sufficient reason ; and if they are true 
men themselves, they dare not ask him to 
break his word. If a man asks you to 
drink after you have signed the Pledge, he 
is no true friend; he is doing the devil's 
work. He is certain to turn round and in- 
sult you after you have done his will, be- 
cause he will have lost the last fragment of 
respect for you. 

There are some men who must have a 
reason to give others for doing as they do ; 



WHY SIGN THE FLEDGE.^ 263 

here at least is a clear, straightforward, in- 
telligible reason, which puts an end to con- 
troversy, and settles the matter forever — 
^^ I have signed the Pledge.'' 

Sign the Pledge : it keeps it from becoming 
the badge of a reclaimed drunkard. If the 
Pledge were only signed by men who had 
been drunkards, but who were trying to 
live a new life, it would become the badge 
of reclaimed drunkards, and it would soon 
cease to be signed by this class of men, who 
need it most. This would be a great ca- 
lamity. 

^^I dare not sign the Pledge,'' said a 
young doctor to a friend who was trying to 
get him to do so, as a means of saving him 
from ruin. '' Why not ? " was his friend's 
reply. '' Because if people heard that I 
had done so they would say that there 
must have been a screw loose in my char- 
acter, and that I was a reclaimed drunk- 
ard." " No," said his friend, '' they never 
can say that, for it has been signed by 
thousands of thousands on whose character 
there has never been a stain." The answer 
re-assured him ; he signed the Pledge, and 
is now an earnest Christian worker in one 
of our large towns. 

You may not need to sign the Pledge for 
yourself, but sign it that you may give it 
the benefit, the weight, the standing of 



'264 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

your own moral character. If everyone 
of reputable and stainless character were 
to stand aloof, the Pledge would be a hope- 
less failure. Every respectable Christian 
person who signs it is like one of the corks 
floating on the surface of the sea, helping 
to sustain the heavy nets laden with lish. 

Sign the Pledge : it makes it easier for others 
to do the same. We are creatures of fashion. 
We cannot help it. We are made so. 
What one does, the others are apt to do. 
There's many an eager eye looking to see 
what the reader of these lines is going to 
do; if he signs the Pledge, that boy, that 
companion, that servant, will do the same; 
but if he refuses to do so, it may be that 
that waiting one will also refuse, and that 
refusal will lead to ruin. 

More eyes are watching us than we 
think. More lives than we know are on 
the balance, waiting for the feather of our 
example to turn them this way or that. 
Are we right in leaving anything undone 
that might save one for whom Christ died ? 
We must use all means to save some, 
though the use of the means compel us to 
forego some boasted liberty, or some loved 
indulgence. 

Don't say that you have no influence, it 
is only an excuse ; you have ; you would 
not like another to say that. '* I have no 



WHY SIGN THE FLEDGE? 265 

influence/' said a man to one who asked 
him to take the Pledge for the sake of oth- 
ers. His wife came up at that moment and 
said, ^' That's true, you have no more in- 
fluence than a cat." If you say that again, 
woman," said he, ^^ I will knock you 
down." Of course you have influence ; use 
it well. 

Sign the Pledge : it will win yon friends. 
We all need friends, and if we have given 
up those who gather around the Drink, we 
need others, and we are most likely to find 
these wherever there are Pledge-cards to 
be had for signature. It is all very well to 
resolve to give up the Drink and to keep 
the vow secretly, but it is much better to 
take the Pledge in the presence of one or 
more persons, who shall bear witness to 
what they have seen, and who will be 
bound to you in the bonds of a new and 
common brotherhood, because they have 
done the same thing, and are pledged to 
the same cause. 

But I do not like to sign away my liberty. 
Then, if you are unmarried, you will never 
be married ; you will surely never promise 
to love and honor any one individual, be- 
cause you may w^ant to change your mind. 
And what is true in this case is true in 
others, and is a sufiicient answer to the 
objection. If you like, take the Pledge 



266 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

for a short time only^ as you take the lease of 
a house ; you can easily renew it again 
and again. Or, better still, promise to ab- 
stain, by God's help, from all intoxicating 
Drinks, as a Beverage, until you return your 
Pledge- card to the friend from whom you have 
received it. This will give you an opportu- 
nity of relinquishing it when you choose, 
and it will give him an opportunity of 
speaking earnestly with you when your 
purpose is faltering. 

But I may he forced to drink. If you are, 
you will not violate your Pledge. You 
only promise to abstain from Intoxicants 
as a Beverage, If it is poured down your 
throat by force, or when you are fainting ; 
if the physician compels you to take it; if 
you take it unawares in some dish of cook- 
ery : your Pledge is not broken. It is not 
you that break it. 

But I have taken it, and broken more than 
once. Then take it again, in humble de- 
pendence on the Saviour, ^^who has been 
manifested to destroy the works of the 
devil.'' Most, if not all. Total Abstinence 
Pledges lay stress on the words, Goi> 
Helping Me. These words are the heart of 
all. If they are not felt deep down in the 
soul the Pledge is not good for much, it rests 
on mere human strength. But when God is 
appealed to, the case is altered. Divine 



WHY SIGN THE PLEDGE? 267 

power pours into the spirit which is lifted 
up to Him in prayer and trust. Angel 
hands are stretched out to hold back the 
erring feet. A holy garrison is put inside 
the weak and trembling nature to hold it 
against the foe. Ask the Lord Jesus to 
forgive the past. Ask Him to save you 
from your enemy. Ask Him to shield you 
in the day of battle. Ask Him, when the 
door is nearly battered in, to put His foot 
against it and keep it closely shut. He is 
able to keep you from stumbling. He is 
able to keep that which you commit to 
Him. He is able to make you more than 
a conqueror. Put yourself into His hands 
before you leave your room in the morning. 
Keep looking to Him all day. Praise Him 
for His grace each night. 

^' What^s that, that you keep mumbling 
to yourself? '' said a working-man to 
another at a little distance from him in the 
same shop. ^ ^ I keep on saying, ^ Lord 
help me,' " was the reply ; ^^ I say it day 
and night ; it is the only way I know of to 
keep down my thirst for the Drink. ' ' 

Take heart, my friend ; the battle may 
be sharp, but victory is sure. And when 
once you stand firm on the rock, be on the 
alert to rescue others from the raging 
waters of Strong Drink. 



Where am I Wrong? 



WHERE AM I WRONG? 

THIS is thy eager question, O Christian 
soul, and thy bitter complaint. On 
the faces and in the lives of others 
who are known to thee, thou hast discerned 
a light, a joy, a power, which thou enviest 
with a desire that oppresses thee, but for 
which thou shouldest thank God devoutly. 
It is well when we are dissatisfied with the 
low levels on which we have been wont to 
live, and begin to ask the secret of a sweeter, 
nobler, more victorious life. The sleeper 
who turns restlessly is near awaking, and 
will find that already the light of the morn- 
ing is shining around the couch on which 
slumber has been indulged too long. 
^^ Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from 
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." 
We must, however, remember that tem- 
peraments differ. Some seem born in the 
dark, and carry with them through life an 
hereditary predisposition to melancholy. 
Their nature is set to a minor key and re- 
sponds most easily and naturally to depres- 
sion. They look always on the dark side 

271 



272 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

of things, and in the bluest of skies discover 
the cloud no bigger than a man's hand. 
Theirs is a shadowed pathway, where glints 
of sunshine strike feebly and with difficulty 
through the dark foliage above. 

Such a temperament may be thine ; and 
if it be, thou never canst expect to obtain 
just the same exuberant gladness which 
comes to others, nor musi. thou complain if 
it is so. This is the burden which thy Sa- 
viour's hands shaped for thee, and thou 
must carry it for Him, not complaining, or 
parading it to the gaze of others, or allow- 
ing it to master thy steadfast and resolute 
spirit, but bearing it silently, and glorifying 
God amid all. But, though it may be im- 
possible to win the joyousness which comes 
to others, there may at least be rest, and 
victory, and serenity — Heaven's best gifts 
to man. 

We must remember, also, that emotion is 
no true test of our spiritual state. Eightness of 
heart often shows itself in gladness of heart, 
just as bodily health generally reveals itself 
in exuberant spirits. But it is not always 
so. In other words, absence of joy does 
not always prove that the heart is wrong. 
It may do so, but certainly not invariably. 
Perhaps the nervous system may have been 
overtaxed, as Elijah's was in the wilder- 
ness, when, after the long strain of Carmel 



WHERE AM I WRONG? 273 

and his flight was over, he lay down upon 
the sand and asked to die — a request which 
God met, not with rebuke, but with food 
and sleep. Perhaps the Lord has withdrawn 
the light from the landscape in order to see 
whether He was loved for Himself or merely 
for His gifts. Perhaps the discipline of life 
has culminated in a Gethsemane, where the 
bitter cup is being placed to the lips by a 
Father's hand, though only a Judas can be 
seen, and in the momentary anguish caused 
by the effort to renounce the will it is only 
possible to lie upon the ground, with strong 
crying and tears, which the night wind 
bears to God. Under such circumstances as 
these exuberant joy is out of place. Somber 
colors become the tried and suffering soul. 
High spirits would be as unbecoming here 
as gaiety in the home shadowed by death. 
Patience, courage, faith are the suitable 
graces to be manifested at such times. 

But, when allowance is made for all 
these, it is certain that many of us are cul- 
pably missing a blessedness which would 
make us radiant with the light of Paradise; 
and the loss is attributable to some defect 
in our character which we shall do well to 
detect and make right. 

1. — Perhaps you do not Distinguish be- 
tween YOUR Standing and your Experi- 
ence. Our experiences are fickle as April 



274 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

weather ; now sunshine, now cloud ; lights 
and shadows chasing each other over 
miles of heathery moor or foam-flecked sea. 
Eut our standing in Jesus changes not. It 
is like Himself — the same yesterday, to-day, 
and forever. It did not originate in us, but 
in His everlasting love, which, foreseeing 
all that we should be, loved us notwith- 
standing all. It has not been purchased by 
us, but by His precious blood, which pleads 
for us as mightily and successfully when we 
can hardly claim it as when our faith is 
most buoyant. It is not maintained by us, 
but by the Holy Spirit. If we have fled to 
Jesus for salvation, sheltering under Him, 
relying on Him, and trusting Him, though 
with many misgivings, as well as we may, 
then we are one with Him forever. We were 
one with Him in the grave ; one with Him 
on the Easter morn ; one with Him when 
He sat down at God's right hand. We are 
one with Him now as He stands in the light 
of His Father's smile, as the limbs of the 
swimmer are one with the head, though it 
alone is encircled with the warm glory of 
the sun, while they are hidden beneath the 
waves. And no doubt or depression can for 
a single moment affect or alter our accept- 
ance with God through the blood of Jesus, 
which is an eternal fact. 

You have not realized this, perhaps, but 



WHERE AM I WRONG? 275 

have thought that your standing in Jesus 
was aflfected by your changeful moods. As 
well might the fortune of a ward in chan- 
cery be diminished or increased by the 
amount of her spending money. Our stand- 
ing in Jesus is our invested capital, our 
emotions at the best are but our spending 
money, which is ever passing through our 
pocket or purse, never exactly the same. 
Cease to consider how you feel, and build 
on the immovable rock of what Jesus is, 
and has done, and is doing and will do for 
you, world without end. 

2. — Perhaps you Live too much in 
YOUR Feelings, too little in your Will. 
We have no direct control over our feel- 
ings, but we have over our will. ^^Our 
wills are ours, to make them Thine.'' God 
does not hold us responsible for what we 
jeel^ but for what we will. In His sight we 
are not what we feel, but what we will. 
Let us, therefore, not live in the summer- 
house of emotion, but in the central citadel 
of the will, wholly yielded and devoted to 
the will of God. 

At the Table of the Lord, the soul is 
often suffused with holy emotion, the tides 
rise high, the tumultuous torrents of joy 
knock loudly against the floodgates as if 
to beat them down, and every element in 
the nature joins in the choral hymn of rap- 



276 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

turous praise. But the morrow comes, and 
life has to be faced in the grimy counting- 
house, the dingy shop, the noisy factory, 
the godless workroom ; and as the soul 
compares the joy of yesterday with the dif- 
ficulty experienced in walking humbly with 
the Lord, it is inclined to question whether 
it is quite so devoted and consecrated as it 
was. But, at such a time, how fair a thing 
it is to remark that the wall has not altered 
its position by a hair's breadth, and to look 
up and say: '^My God, the spring-tide of 
emotion has passed away like a summer 
brook ; but in my heart of hearts, in my 
will. Thou knowest I am as devoted, as 
loyal, as desirous to be only for Thee, as in 
the blessed moment of unbroken retirement 
at Thy feet . ' ' This is an offering with which 
God is well pleased. And thus we may live 
a calm, peaceful life. 

3. — Perhaps you have Disobeyed some 
CLEAR Command. Sometimes a soul comes 
to its spiritual adviser, speaking thus: 

^' I have no conscious joy, and have had 
but little for years.'' 

'-'- Did you once have it?" 

'^ Yes, for some time after my conversion 
to God." 

^^Are you conscious of having refused 
obedience to some distinct command, which 
came into your life, but from which you 
shrank?" 



WHERE AM I WRONG? 277 

Then the face is cast down, and the eyes 
film with tears, and the answer comes with 
difficulty . 

'^ Yes, years ago I used to think that God 
required a certain thing of me ; but I felt I 
could not do what He wished, was uneasy 
for some time about it, but after a while it 
seemed to fade from my mind, and now it 
does not often trouble me." 

^^Ah, soul, that is where thou hast gone 
wrong, and thou wilt never get right till 
thou goest right back through the weary 
years to the point where thou didst drop 
the thread of obedience, and performest that 
one thing which God demanded of thee so 
long ago, but on account of which thou didst 
leave the narrow track of implicit obedi- 
ence." 

Is not this the cause of depression to 
thousands of Christian people ? They are 
God's children, but they are disobedient 
children. The Bible rings with one long 
demand for obedience. The key-word of 
the Book of Deuteronomy is. Observe and Do. 
The burden of the Farewell Discourse is, 
If ye love Jie, keep My commandments. We 
must not question or reply or excuse our- 
selves. We must not pick and choose our 
way. We must not take some commands 
and reject others. We must not think that 
obedience in other directions will compen- 



278 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

sate for disobedience in some one particular. 
God gives us one command at a time, borne 
in upon us, not in one way only, but in 
many ; by this He tests us. If we obey in 
this, He will flood our soul with blessing 
and lead us forward into new paths and pas- 
tures. But if we refuse in this, we shall 
remain stagnant and water-logged, make no 
progress in Christian experience, and lack 
both power and joy. 

4. — Perhaps you are Permitting some 
Known Evil. When water is left to stand 
the particles of silt betray themselves, as 
they fall one by one to the bottom. So if 
you are quiet you may become aware of the 
presence in your soul of permitted evil. 
Dare to consider it. Do not avoid the sight 
as the bankrupt avoids his tell-tale ledgers 
or as the consumptive patient the stetho- 
scope. Compel yourself quietly to consider 
whatever evil the Spirit of God discovers to 
your soul. It may have lurked in the cup- 
boards and cloisters of your being for years, 
suspected but unjudged. But whatever it 
be, and whatever its history, be sure that it 
has brought the shadow over your life which 
is your daily sorrow. 

Does your will refuse to relinquish a prac- 
tice or habit which is alien to the will of 
God? 

Do you permit some secret sin to have its 



WHERE AM I WRONG? 279 

unhindered way in the house of your life? 

Do your affections roam unrestrained 
after forbidden objects? 

Do you cherish any resentment or hatred 
toward another, to whom you refuse to be 
reconciled ? 

Is there some injustice which you refuse 
to forgive, some charge which you refuse to 
pay, some wrong which you refuse to con- 
fess? 

Are you allowing something yourself 
which you would be the first to condemn in 
others, but which you argue may be per- 
mitted in your own case, because of certain 
reasons with which you attempt to smother 
the remonstrances of conscience ? 

In some cases the hindrance to conscious 
blessedness lies not in sins, but in weights 
which hang around the soul. Sin is that 
which is always and everywhere wrong; 
but a weight is any thing which may hinder 
or impede the Christian life, without being 
positively sin. And thus a thing may be a 
weight to one which is not so to another. 
Each must be fully persuaded in his own 
mind. And wherever the soul is aware of 
its life being hindered by the presence of 
any one thing, then, however harmless in 
itself, and however innocently permitted 
by others, there can be no alternative, but 
it must be cast aside as the garments of the 



280 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

lads when, on the village green, they com- 
pete for the prize of the wrestle or the 
race. 

5. — Perhaps you Look too much In- 
wards ox Self, instead of Outwards on 
THE Lord Jesus. The healthiest people do 
not think about their health ; the weak in- 
duce disease by morbid introspection. If 
3^ou begin to count your heart-beats, you 
will disturb the rhythmic action of the 
heart. If you continually imagine a pain 
anywhere, you will produce it. And there 
are some true children of God who induce 
their own darkness by morbid self-scrutiny. 
They are always going back on themselves, 
analyzing their motives, reconsidering past 
acts of consecration, comparing themselves 
with themselves. In one form or another 
self is the pivot of their life, albeit that it 
is undoubtedly a religious life. What but 
darkness can result from such a course? 
There are certainly times in our lives when 
we must look within, and judge ourselves, 
that we be not judged. But this is only 
done that we may turn w^ith fuller purpose 
of heart to the Lord. And when once done, 
it needs not to be repeated. ^- Leaving the 
things behind" is the only safe motto. The 
question is. not whether we did as well as 
we might, but whether we did as well as we 
could at the time. 



WHERE AM I WRONG? 281 

We must not spend all our lives in clean- 
ing our windows, or in considering whether 
they are clean, but in sunning ourselves in 
God's blessed light. That light will soon 
show us what still needs to be cleansed 
away, and will enable us to cleanse it with 
unerring accuracy. Our Lord Jesus is a 
perfect reservoir of everything the soul of 
man requires for a blessed and holy life. 
To make much of Him, to abide in Him, to 
draw from Him, to receive each moment 
from His fallness, is therefore the only con- 
dition of soul-health. But to be more con- 
cerned with self than with Him is like 
spending much time and thought over the 
senses of the body and never using them for 
the purpose of receiving impressions from 
the world outside. Look off unto Jesus. 
Delight thyself in the Lord. My soul, wait 
thou only upon God ! 

6. — Perhaps YOU spend too little Time 

IX COMMUiS^ION WITH GoD THROUGH HiS 

Word. It is not necessary to make long 
prayers, but it is essential to be much alone 
with God ; waiting at His door ; hearken- 
ing for His voice ; lingering in the garden 
of Scripture for the coming of the Lord God 
in the dawn or cool of the day. IS'o number 
of meetings, no fellowship with Christian 
friends, no amount of Christian activity can 
compensate for the neglect of the still hour. 



282 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

When you feel least inclined for it, there 
is most need to make for your closet with 
the shut door. Do for duty's sake what 
you cannot do as a pleasure, and you will 
find it become delightful. You can better 
thrive without nourishment than become 
happy or strong in Christian life without 
fellowship with God. 

When you cannot pray for yourself, be- 
gin to pray for others. When your desires 
flag, take the Bible in hand, and begin to 
turn each text into petition ; or take up the 
tale of your mercies and begin to translate 
each of them into praise. When the Bible 
itself becomes irksome, inquire whether you 
have not been spoiling your appetite by 
sweetmeats and renounce them; and believe 
that the Word is the wire along which the 
voice of God will certainly come to you, if 
the heart is hushed and the attention fixed. 
^^I will hear what God the Lord shall 
speak. ' ' 

More Christians than we can count are 
suffering from a lack of prayer and Bible 
study, and no revival is more to be desired 
than that of systematic private Bible study. 
There is no short and easy method of god- 
liness which can dispense with this. 

7. — Perhaps you have never given 
Yourself entirely over to the Master- 
ship OF THE Lord Jesus. We are His by 



WHERE AM I WRONG? 283 

many ties and rights, but too few of ns rec- 
ognize his lordship. We are willing enough 
to take Him as Saviour; we hesitate to make 
Him King. We forget that God has ex- 
alted Him to be Prince as well as Saviour. 
And the Divine order is irreversible. Those 
who ignore the lordship of Jesus cannot 
build up a strong or happy life. 

Put the sun in its central throne, and all 
the motions of the planets assume a beau- 
tiful order. Put Jesus on the throne of the 
life, and all things fall into harmony and 
peace. Seek first the kingdom of God, and 
all things are yours. Consecration is the 
indispensable condition of blessedness. 

So shall the light break on thy path, such 
as has not shone there for many days. Yea, 
^Hhy sun shall no more go down, neither 
shall thy moon withdraw herself ; but the 
Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, 
and the days of thy mourning shall he ended. ^^ 



Our Bible Reading 



OUR BIBLE READING. 

THE whole of Christian Livings in my 
opinion, hinges on the way in which 
Christian people read the Bible for 
themselves. All sermons and addresses, 
all Bible-readings and classes, all religious 
magazines and books, can never take the 
place of our own quiet study of God's pre- 
<3ious Word. We may measure our growth 
in grace by the growth of our love for pri- 
vate Bible study. And we may be sure 
that there is something seriously wrong 
w^hen we lose our appetite for the Bread of 
Xiife. Perhaps we have been eating too 
many sweets ; or taking too little exercise ; 
or breathing too briefly in the bracing air, 
which sweeps over the uplands of Spiritual 
Communion with God. 

Happy are they who have learnt the 
blessed art of discovering for themselves 
the treasures of the Bible, which are hidden 
just a little below the surface, so as to test 
our real earnestness in finding them. No 
specimens are so interesting as those which 
the Naturalist has obtained by his own ex- 

287 



288 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

ertions, and each of which has a history. 
No flowers are so fragrant as those which 
we discover for ourselves, nestling in some 
woodland dell, remote from the eye and step 
of men. No pearls are so priceless as those 
which he have sought for ourselves in the 
calm, clear depths of the ocean of truth. 
Only those who know it can realize the joy 
that fills the spirit when one has made a 
great ^^find'' in some hidden connection, 
some fresh reference, or some railway lines 
from verse to verse. 

There are a few simple rules, which may 
help many more to acquire this holy art, 
and I venture to note them down. May 
the Holy Spirit Himself own and use them ! 

1 . — Make time for Bible Study. The Divine 
Teacher must have fixed and uninterrupted 
hours for meeting His scholars. His Word 
must have our freshest and brightest 
thoughts. We must give Him our best, and 
the firstfruits of our days. Hence there is 
no time for Bible study like the early morn- 
ing. For we cannot give such undivided 
attention to the holy thoughts that glisten 
like diamonds on its pages after we have 
opened our letters, glanced through the 
paper, and joined in the prattle of the break- 
fast table. The manna had to be gathered 
before the dew was off and the sun was up ; 
otherwise it melted. 



OUR BIBLE READING. 289 

We ought, therefore, to aim at securing 
at least half an hour before breakfast for the 
leisurely and loving study of the Bible. To 
some this may seem a long time in com- 
parison with what they now give, but it 
will soon seem all too short. The more you 
read the Bible the more you will want to 
read it. It is an appetite which grows as 
it is fed. And you will be well repaid. The 
Bible • seldom speaks, and certainly never 
its deepest, sweetest words, to those who 
always read it in a hurry. Nature can only 
tell her secrets to such as will sit still in 
her sacred Temple till their eyes lose the 
glare of earthly glory and their ears are at- 
tuned to her voice. And shall Revelation 
do what IN'ature cannot? Never. The man 
who shall win the blessedness of hearing 
her must watch daily at her gates and wait 
at the posts of her doors. There is no 
chance for a lad to grow who only gets an 
occasional mouthful of food and always 
swallows that in a hurry ! 

Of course this season before breakfast is 
not possible for all. The Invalid ; the 
Nurse with broken rest; the Public Ser- 
vant, whose night is often turned into day 
— these stand alone, and the Lord Jesus 
can make it up to them, sitting with them 
at mid-day, if needs be, beside the well. In 
the case of such as can only snatch a few 



290 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

words of Scripture as they hasten to their 
work, there will be repeated the miracle of 
the manna. ^^ He that gathered much had 
nothing over ; ' ' i. 6. , all we get in our morn- 
ing reading is not too much for the needs 
of the day ; ^ ^ and he that gathered little had 
no lack ;'' i. e., when, by force of circum- 
stances, we are unable to do more than 
snatch up a hasty handful of manna, it will 
last us all through the day ; the cruse of oil 
shall not waste, and the barrel of meal shall 
not fail. 

It would be impossible to name all who 
have traced their usefulness and power to 
this priceless habit. Sir Henry Havelock 
always spent the first two hours of each day 
alone with God; and if the encampment 
was struck at 6 a.m., he woul^i rise at 4. 
Earl Cairns rose daily at 6 o'clock to secure 
an hour and a half for the study of the 
Bible and for prayer, before conducting fam- 
ily worship at a quarter to 8, even when 
the late hours of the House of Commons 
left him not more than two hours for his 
night's rest. It is the practice of a beloved 
friend, who stands in the front rank of 
modern Missionaries, to spend at least 
three hours each morning with his Bible ; 
and he has said that he often puts aside 
pressing engagements, that he may not only 
have time, but be fresh for it. 



OUR BIBLE READING. 291 

There is no doubt a difficulty in awaken- 
ing and arising early enough to get time for 
our Bibles before breakfast. But these diffi- 
culties present no barrier to those who 
must get away early for daily business or 
for the appointments of pleasure. If we 
mean to get up, we can get up. Of course 
we must prepare the way for early-rising 
by retiring early to obtain our needed rest, 
though it be at the cost of some cosy hours 
by the fireside in the winter's night. But 
with due forethought and fixed purpose the 
thing can surely be done. ^^All things are 
possible to him that believeth.'' 

I never shall forget seeing Charles Studd, 
early one ]N"ovember morning, clothed in 
flannels to protect him from the cold, and 
rejoicing that the Lord had awaked him at 
4 a.m. to study His commands. He told 
me then that it was his custom to trust the 
Lord to call him and enable him to rise. 
Might not we all do this? The weakest 
can do all things through Christ that 
strengtheneth us. And though you have 
failed again and again when you have 
trusted your own resolutions, you cannot 
fail when you are simply trusting Him. 
^^He wakeneth me morning by morning." 
^ ^ He took him by the right hand and lifted 
him up ; and immediately his feet and ankle 
bones received strength. ' ' 



292 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

2. — Looh up for the Teaching of the Holy 
Spirit. No one can so well explain the 
meaning of liis words as lie who wrote 
them. Tennyson could best explain some 
of his deeper references in ^^InMemoriam.'^ 
If, then, you want to read the Bible as you 
should, make much of the Holy Ghost, 
who inspired it through holy men. As 
you open the book, lift up your heart, and 
say: ^^Open Thou mine eyes, that I may 
behold wondrous things out of Thy law. 
Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.'^ 

It is marvelous what slender light com- 
mentaries cast on the inner meaning of 
Scripture. A simple-hearted believer, de- 
pending on the aid of the Holy Ghost, will 
find things in the Bible which the wisest 
have mistaken or missed. Well might St. 
John say of such, '^ Ye need not that any 
man should teach you ; but the annointing 
which ye have received, teacheth you of 
all things. The teaching of the Holy 
Ghost brings out passages in the Bible, 
which had seemed meaningless and bare. 

We can never know too much of that 
literature which throws side-lights on the 
Bible ; and which unfolds the customs of 
the people, difficult allusions, historical 
coincidences, geographical details. Geikie's 
Hours with the Bible; Kitto^s Daily Illustra- 
tionsj edited by Dr. Porter; Dr. Smith's 



OUR BIBLE READING. 293 

Bihle Dictionary: books like these are inval- 
uable. But we should study them at other 
times than in the morning hour, reserved 
for the Holy Ghost alone. 

3. — Read the Bihle methodically. For some 
reasons it is very helpful to map out the 
Bible into Annual Courses, and then neatly 
insert the dates, once for all, in the margin 
as a permanent guide. The Old Testa- 
ment forms two Annual Courses, each por- 
tion averaging five -sixths of a page of a 
Bagster's Bible; while the l^ew Testament 
makes a single course, each day's reading 
being on an average exactly one column. 

This system has been adopted by those 
members of the Y. M. C. A. Bible Beading 
Union not already pledged to use other 
portions; and by other friends who use the 
tasteful little ^^ Calendars '^ (one for each 
Testament) in which the Annual Courses 
are clearly arranged. The short New Tes- 
tament portions should be read every year 
by all ; and one Old Testament course by 
all who can possibly do so, thus working 
the larger division of the Sacred Volume 
through in two years. 

It is wise to have a good copy of the 
Scriptures, strongly bound for wear and 
tear ; of good clear print, and with as 
much space as possible for notes. It is 
wise at first to select one with copious 



294 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

marginal references ; so that it may be 
easy to turn to the parallel passages. For 
myself, this plan has invested my Bible 
reading with new interest. I love to have 
in front of me one of the Paragraph Bibles 
of the Religious Tract Society, which 
abound in well-chosen references, and a 
small pocket Bible in my hand, that I may 
easily turn to any reference I desire ; and 
very often I get more blessing from the 
passages to which I refer, and those to which 
these lead, than from the one I may be 
reading. 

After a while, we shall begin to make 
references for ourselves ; and then we may 
use a copy of the Revised Bible ; that we 
may not only be able to read God's Word 
in the most approved English rendering, 
which is an immense advantage ; but that 
we may also be able to fill up the empty 
margins with the notes of parallel pas- 
sages. 

But whatever system is adopted, be sure 
to read the Bible through on some system 
as you would read any other book. IS'o 
one would think of reading a letter, poem, 
or history, as many read God's Word. 
What wonder that they are so ignorant of 
its majestic prose, its exquisite lyric poetry, 
its massive arguments, its sublime imagery, 
its spiritual beauty — qualities which com- 



OUR BIBLE READING. 295 

bine to make it the King of Books, even 
though the halo of Inspiration did not 
shine like a crown about its brow! 

It is sometimes well to read a book at a 
sitting, devoting two or three hours to the 
sacred task. At other times, it is more 
profitable to take an epoch, or an episode, 
or a life, and compare all that is written of 
it in various parts of Scripture. At other 
times, again, it is well to follow the plan, 
on which Mr. Moody has so often insisted, 
of taking one word or thought, as Faith, 
or Love, or Able, and tracing it, by help 
of a concordance, from end to end of the 
inspired volume. But in any case, let the 
whole Bible be your study ; because ^ ''All 
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
and is profitable." Even the rocky places 
shall gush with water-springs. The most 
barren chapters shall blossom as the rose. 
•^Out of th^ eater shall come forth meat, 
and sweetness out of the strong.^' 

Let us never forget that the Bible is one 
Book; the work of one Infinite Spirit, 
speaking through Prophet and Priest, 
Shepherd and King, the old-world Patri- 
arch and the Apostle w^ho lived to see 
Jerusalem leveled to the ground. You 
may subject its words to the most search- 
ing test, but you will find they will 
always bear the same meaning, and move 



296 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

in the same direction. Let the Bible be 
its own Dictionary, its own Interpreter, its 
own best Commentary. It is like a vast 
buried city, in which every turn of the 
spade reveals some new marvel , whilst pas- 
sages branch off in every direction calling 
for exploration. 

4. — Read your Bible with your pen in hand. 
Writing of F. E. Havergal, her sister says, 
'' She read her Bible at her study table by 
seven o'clock in the summer, and eight 
o'clock in winter ; sometimes, on bitterly 
cold mornings, I begged that she would 
read with her feet comfortably to the fire, 
and received the reply : ^ But then, Marie, 
I can't rule my lines neatly ; just see what 
a find I've got ! ' If only one searches, 
there are such extraordinary things in the 
Bible. She resolutely refrained from late 
hours and frittering talks at night in place 
of Bible searching and holy communings. 
Early rising and early studying were her 
rule through life." 

ISTone, in my judgment, have learnt the 
secret of enjoying the Bible until they have 
commenced to mark it, neatly. Under- 
lining and dating special verses, which 
have cast a light upon their path on special 
days. Drawing railway connections, across 
the page, between verses, which repeat the 
same message, or ring with the same note. 



OUR BIBLE READING. 297 

Jotting down new references, or the catch- 
words of helpful thoughts. All these 
methods find plenty of employment for the 
pen ; and fix our treasures for us perma- 
nently. Our Bible then becomes the 
precious memento of bye-gone hours ; and 
records the history of our inner life. 

5. — Seek eagerly your Personal Profit, Do 
not read the Bible for others, for class or 
congregation ; but for yourself. Bring all 
its rays to a focus on your own heart. 
AVhilst you are reading, often ask that 
some verse or verses may start out from 
the printed page, as God's message to 
yourself. And never close the book until 
you feel that you are carrying away your 
portion of meat from that Hand which sat- 
isfieth the desire of every living thing. It 
is well sometimes to stop reading, and 
seriously ask, What does the Holy Spirit 
mean me to learn by this ; what bearing 
should this have on r)iy life ; how can I 
work this into the fabric of my character ? 

Let not the Bible be to you simply as a 
history, a treatise, or a poem, but as your 
Father's letter to yourself ; in which there 
are some things which you will not under- 
stand, till you come into the circumstances 
which require them ; but which is also full 
of present help. There is a great differ- 
ence between the way in which an absent 



298 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

child scans the parcel of newspapers, and 
that in which he devours the Home-letter, 
by which the beloved parent speaks. Both 
are interesting, but the one is general, the 
other is all to himself. Eead the Bible, 
not as a newspaper, but as a Home-letter. 

Above all, turn from the printed page to 
prayer. If a cluster of heavenly fruit hangs 
within reach, gather it. If a promise lies 
upon the page as a blank cheque, cash it. 
If a prayer is recorded, appropriate it, and 
launch it as a feathered arrow from the 
bow of your desire. If an example of 
holiness gleams before you, ask God to do 
as much for you. If a truth is revealed in 
all its intrinsic splendor, entreat that its 
brilliance may even irradiate the hemis- 
phere of your life like a star. Entwine the 
climbing creepers of holy desire about the 
lattice-work of Scripture. So shall you 
come to say with the Psalmist, ^^ Oh, how 
I love Thy law, it is my meditation all the 
day!'' 

It is sometimes well to read over, on our 
knees. Psalm cxix. so full of devout love 
for the Bible. And if any should chide us 
for spending so much time upon theOld Tes- 
tament, or the New, let us remind them of 
the words of Christ, '^ Man shall not live 
by bread alone, but by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God. ' ' The 



OUR BIBLE READING. 299 

Old Testament must be worth our study 
since it was our Saviour's Bible deeply 
pondered and often quoted. And the New 
demands it, since it is so full of what He 
said and did, not only in His earthly life, 
but through the medium of His holy apos- 
tles and prophets. 1 J ^-P 
The advantages of a deep knowledge ot 
the Bible are more than can be numbered 
here. It is the Storehouse of the Promises 
It is the Sword of the Spirit before which 
temptation flees. It is the all-suf&cient 
Equipment for Christian usefulness. It is 
the believer's Guide-book and Directory m 
all possible circumstances. Words fail to 
tell how glad, how strong, how useful 
shall be the daily life of those who can say 
with the Prophet, "Thy Ws were 
found, and I did eat them ; and Thy word 
was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my 

But there is one thing, which may be 
said last, because it is most important, and 
should linger in the memory and heart, 
though all the other exhortations of this 
tractlet should pass away as a summer- 
brook. It is this. It is useless to dream 
of making headway in the knowledge ot 
Scripture, unless we are prepared to prac- 
tice each new and clearly-defined duty, 
which looms out before our view. We are 



300 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIEE, 

taught, not for our pleasure only, hut that 
we may do. If we will turn each holy pre- 
cept or command into instant obedience, 
through the dear grace of Jesus Christ our 
Lord, God will keep nothing back from us ; 
He will open to us His deepest and sweet- 
est thoughts. But so long as we refuse 
obedience to even the least command, we 
shall find that the light will fade from the 
page of Scripture, and the zest will die 
down quickly in our own hearts. 

'' This Book of the Law shall not depart 
out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate 
therein day and night, that thou mayest 
observe to do according to all that is 
written therein : for then thou shalt make 
thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt 
have good success ^ ' (Joshua i. 8) , 



A Keswick Experience 



A KESWICK EXPERIENCE. 

O'NlSi memorable evening, towards the 
close of a convention of unusual 
power, a quiet, eager crowd of some 
twelve hundred people gathered in the 
great tent to seek a fresh enduement of the 
Holy Spirit. The time was spent in 
prayer and praise, and quotation of Script- 
ure expressive of experiences which were 
lifting many to the open gate of Paradise. 
As I knelt in a retired corner of the plat- 
form, I realized that the Lord was coming 
manifestly and sensibly to many of His 
temples, for the fact of His presence was 
attested by their almost tumultuous joy. 
But in all this I had no share other than 
to long with vehement desire to be in- 
cluded in the gifts which were being so 
bountifully bestowed. I was suffering at 
the time from nervous depression, the re- 
action from a long spell of work ; and it 
seemed to me as though I were standing in 
some outer circle, with which I must be 
content, whilst those whose emotional life 
was more exuberant, were participating in 

303 



304 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, 

spiritual communications of the rarest 
type. At last I could bear it no longer, 
and whilst the meeting was still proceed- 
ing I slipped through the tent curtains into 
the night, speaking to no one, and only- 
eager to be away on those hills which to so 
many have been Pisgahs of vision and Her- 
mons of transfiguration. 

During the week, beneath the searching 
light of those eyes which are as a flame of 
fire, I had put away what had been re- 
vealed of the filthiness of the flesh and 
spirit, and there was therefore no reason 
why the blessing should be delayed. When 
I reached a familiar spot, I cried aloud : — 
^* My Father, if there is one soul more than 
another within the circle of these hills that 
needs the gift of Pentecost, it is I ; but I 
am too weary to think, or feel, or pray in- 
tensely. Is it not possible to receive it 
without the tide of emotion which so often 
accompanies its advent or renewal in the 
soul?'^ 

Then a voice, sweet and low, seemed to 
say, ^^ Claim and receive it by an act of 
faith, apart from feeling. As thy share in 
God's forgiving grace was won for thee by 
the dying Christ, so thy share in the pen- 
tecostal gift is held for thee by the glorified 
Christ ; and as thou didst take the former, 
so thou must take the latter, and reckon 



A KESWICK EXPERIENCE. 305 

that it is thine, by a faith which is utterly 
indifferent to the presence or absence of 
resulting joy. According to thy faith, so it 
will be done unto thee.'' Then it seemed 
to me as if I took a deep inspiration of 
that wind which bloweth where it listeth. 
I opened my mouth and panted. I took 
from the hands of the living Christ my 
share, or as much of it as I could then re- 
ceive, of the fullness of the Spirit, which 
the Father had entrusted to Him on my 
behalf; and as I turned to retrace my steps 
to the town I dared to reckon that it was 
mine as never before. 

On my way to take a farewell glimpse 
of the lake, it being about midnight, I came 
on a group of friends, engaged in dis- 
cussing the meetings of the day and the all- 
engrossing theme of how to receive the 
Pentecostal gift. They were full of holy 
ecstasy, in strong contrast to my own re- 
cent experience, and seemed astonished at 
the thought that the same breath of God 
had not elicited a similar rapturous re- 
sponse as it swept the chords of my heart. 
* And so vv^e passed through the swing- 
gate, and by the side of the church, rearing 
itself above us in somber silence, and came 
on the terrace, from which we could see 
Derwentwater gleaming below, at the foot 
of the encircling hills. The night-clouds 



306 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

were sweeping over it, veiling the stars and 
descending at intervals in light showers of 
rain. So we drew two forms together, and 
gathering close began to compare our ex- 
perience. 

All alike confessed their liability to alter- 
nations of feeling, and even relapse in the 
inner life, when the conditions of soul- 
health were neglected ; but they laid a con- 
siderable stress on emotion as the test of 
their spiritual condition, and especially on 
the consciousness of joy or power in attest- 
ing the reception of the Holy Spirit. They 
reckoned that they were filled of the Spirit, 
so far as they felt His strivings and work- 
ings within ; whereas, as I had received 
Him without emotion, I might expect ever 
to retain and enlarge its measure, whether 
the song-birds of summer or the stillness of 
winter occupied my heart. 

After we had gone round the little circle, 
and every one had recited the sacred inner 
story, a young business-man broke in some- 
how thus: ''' Is there not a danger of your 
fixing your attention too much on the Holy 
Spirit and His methods and too little on 
Him whom the Spirit came to reveal and 
glorify ? My experience of the Holy Spirit 
is that He reveals Christ. It is the one de- 
sire of my life that He should make the 
Lord real to me ; then sin cannot tempt or 



A KESWICK EXPERIENCE. 307 

danger frighten. I am a business-man ; 
and if I lose the sense of His presence for 
iialf an hour, I lock myself into my count- 
ing-house and ask the Holy Spirit what I 
have done to grieve Him and cause Him to 
veil that radiance from my heart." ' ^That^s 
it," we all exclaimed ; ^ 4t is more of Jesus 
that we need. The Spirit is come to bear 
witness of and glorify Him.'' Then we 
bent our heads, and under a strong impulse 
humbly claimed that we might so receive 
the Holy Spirit that, whatever our com- 
pany, or engagements, or experiences, Jesus 
might increasingly become the dear Com- 
panion and Guide of our lives. 



Are you living in the power of the Pente- 
costal gift of the Holy Spirit ? His advent 
on the Day of Pentecost was a distinct his- 
torical event, as distinct and as definite as 
the advent of our Lord to Bethlehem. You 
are living in the enjoyment of the blessings 
resulting from the latter; are you living 
also in the full experience of those which 
have accrued from the former ? If not, you 
are missing the distinctive mark of Chris- 
tianity, which gives it a unique position 
among all the religions of the world. 

The Apostles believed in Christ and called 
Him Master and Lord before Pentecost. 



308 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

In doing so, they bore witness to the oper- 
ation of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. He 
had been working in the hearts of men from 
the beginning. But there was an immense 
difference between what they were up to 
the Day of Pentecost and what they became 
as soon as the Spirit had come. It is evi- 
dently possible, then, for a man to be a be- 
liever in Christ, and even to own Him Lord, 
through the gracious work of the Holy 
Ghost ; and yet he maj^ miss the deeper 
experiences of which Pentecost was the sign 
and seal. Is this your case? 

On which side of Pentecost are you liv- 
ing? Historically, no doubt, you live on 
the hither side of that great day ; but ex- 
perimentally and practically you may be 
living on the other. You are in the great 
light, but you don't see it; you are in a 
gold region, but you are none the richer for 
it. Before you stands an open door into the 
heart of Divine knowledge and power, but 
you have never essayed to enter it. Whilst 
thousands are living practically as though 
Jesus had never been incarnate, died, and 
risen, you are living much as you would 
have done had the gift of Pentecost never 
been bestowed. Think ! Is there anything 
in your Christian life that would have been 
different if the hour of Pentecost had never 
struck ? 



A KESWICK EXPERIENCE. 309 

If not, be sure that there is something in 
Christianity that you have never tasted. 
There is a dividend awaiting you under 
Christ's new testament which you have 
never claimed, but which, if once appre- 
hended and appropriated, would make your 
life rich, fragrant, and vocal as a garden in 
May. 

There are several tests by ivhich you may know 
ivhether you have participated in that filling of 
the Holy Spirit which is characteristic of the 
Pentecostal gift. Among these are the follow- 
ing :— ^ 

1. — A consciousness of the presence of Christ. 
Mr. Spurgeon said once that he never passed 
a single quarter of an hour in his waking 
moments without a distinct consciousness 
of the presence of the Lord. When the 
Spirit fills the heart, Jesus is vividly real 
and evidently near. What is He to you ? 
Do you wake in the morning beneath His 
light touch and spend the hours with Him? 
Can you frequently look up from your work 
and perceive His face ? Are you constantly 
seeking from Him power, grace, direction? 
If He is but a fitful vision, you have not 
realized the first mark of the Pentecostal 
ift. 

2. — Deliverance from the power of sin. The 
Holy Ghost is like fire. As fire cleanses 
metal, so does He the heart. When He is 



i-5 



310 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

within the heart in power, the air is so 
rarefied that the germs of contagion are 
rendered harmless. When the spirit is 
filled with the Holy Spirit, it will be con- 
scious of temptation, more keenly alive to 
its least approach than ever before ; but it 
will have no fascination, no power. People 
talk much of a clean heart ; it seems to me 
wiser and truer to speak of the Holy Spirit 
as Indweller and Cleanser, whose presence 
is purity. 

3. — Minute and direct guidance. Not mere 
vagary or impulse, but guidance, in har- 
mony with the word of God on one hand 
and the drift or trend of circumstances on 
the other. But we must be more quiet be- 
fore God to detect it. Dr. Pierson showed 
me in his study at Philadelphia an arm- 
chair with special associations. He had 
been comforting a brother-minister, who 
had been confined to his bed for six months, 
by suggesting that perhaps God had been 
compelled to lay him aside in order to get 
an opportunity of saying things which in 
his busy life he was unable to receive. Then 
suddenly the thought occurred to him that 
he too was giving God but few opportuni- 
ties of communicating His will, and he re- 
solved that thenceforth he would spend at 
least half an hour each night sitting before 
God when his family had retired and the 



A KESWICK EXPERIENCE, 311 

house was still. He said that during those 
times of retirement he had been distinctly- 
conscious that God spoke with him and 
told him His will. If you are not led by 
the Spirit, be sure that you are not filled by 
Him. 

4. — Tower in service. There is a difference 
between the Spirit being in and on us. It 
is the same Spirit, though in two diff*erent 
manifestations of His grace. Some have 
the Spirit of God in them for character, but 
they are not gifted by Him for service. 
Our Lord Jesus, though conceived of the 
Holy Ghost, yet stood beneath the opened 
heavens to be anointed of the Spirit before 
He entered on His public ministry ; and the 
Church w^as held back from her work of 
evangelizing the waiting world until she 
had received the Pentecostal enduement of 
power. Yet how many Christians are at- 
tempting to do this work without this 
power. 

When speaking on this theme to a recent 
students' convention at I^orthfield, Mr. 
Moody was completely broken down, and in 
utterances choked with w^eeping confessed 
that he was deeply conscious of his lack of 
this special power. The whole of the stu- 
dents broke down too, and he asked them 
to give up the customary afternoon sports 
and to meet him. in the neighboring woods, 



312 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

that they might together seek a fresh an- 
ointing for service. Are we conscious of 
possessing this qualification for soul-win- 
ning ? If not, why do you not claim your 
share of the Pentecostal life from your 
Trustee and Eepresentative? 

5lC 5K * * 

We often wish that we could have been 
amongst the favored group when the Day 
of Pentecost had fully come and they were 
all together in the upper room. We think 
that we should, of course, have heard the 
sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind 
and received on our brows the encircling 
flame, in our hearts the blessed filling. 
But in all likelihood, if we had been there 
in our present condition, the hurricane of 
blessing would have swept past, leaving us 
dry and insensible. Whilst if that Pente- 
costal group were living now, they would 
detect as much of the Spirit's presence, 
they would be as conscious of the working 
of the Lord Jesus, they would find life as 
full of God, as in the days when the age 
was young. Peter would still be filled with 
the Holy Ghost and speak ; Paul would be 
caught up into the seventh heaven and need 
a thorn to counterbalance the splendor of 
the revelations ; John would find doors 
opening into heaven, amid the conditions 



A KESWICK EXPERIENCE. 313 

of our modern life, not less than when the 
chime of the ^gean rose from the beach of 
Patmos. 

A change, you say, is needed. But there 
need be no change in your circumstances, 
in the atmosphere or environment of your 
life. There is as much of the Holy Ghost 
within your reach as was present on the 
Day of Pentecost. This is the age of Pen- 
tecost. He waits to fill you as He did the 
hundred and twenty gathered in the upper 
room. The miraculous gifts have passed 
away because no longer needed. They are 
replaced by evidences that were not possi- 
ble in those early days. But the essence of 
the Pentecostal gift, the filling of the Spirit, 
is as possible to-day as ever. ^^ The prom- 
ise,'' said the Apostle, alluding to our 
Saviour's words, "• is unto all that are afar 
oif , even as many as the Lord our God shall 
call" (Actsi. 4; ii. 39). 

But of what use is it to live in a very 
ocean of power and love if we are unable 
to discern its presence or appropriate its 
marvelous properties? Of what use is it 
that the land of the Hottentots is as full of 
electricity as London is if they know not 
and cannot use its mighty energy? Of what 
use is it that the summer days are full of 
dews, and heat, and light, and other ma- 
terials out of which peaches and nectarines 



314 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

are made if there are no peach-blossoms 
nestling on the boughs to detect or use 
them ? Of what use is it that the floor is 
covered with nourishing food if the new- 
. born babe which lies beside it is unconscious 
of its existence and incapable of assimilat- 
ing it ? 

Th^re is no need, then, to sigh for the 
lost age of gold, since the King of all ages 
is here. Had we lived with Him in His 
earthly life, the benefit would have been 
infinitesimal apart from appropriating faith ; 
but if we have that, though we see Him not, 
we may secure His choicest gifts. These 
conditions, however, must be fulfilled before 
you can exercise that faith and receive that 
supreme gift: — 

1. — Be careful that you desire the filling of 
the Holy Spirit only for the glory of God, If 
you want it that you may realize a certain 
experience, or attract people to yourself, or 
transform some difficulty into a stepping- 
stone, you are likely to miss it. You must 
be set on the one purpose of magnifying 
.the Lord Jesus in your body, whether by 
life or death. Ask that all inferior motives 
may be destroyed, and that this may burn 
strong and clear within you. 

2. — Be cleansed from all ^in of which you may 
he conscious. If you have grieved God by 
impurity, or anger, or unkind judgments 



A KESWICK EXPERIENCE. 315 

of others, seek forgiveness, restoration, and 
cleansing. The cleansed heart is an essen- 
tial of Spirit-filling. 

3. — Present yourself and your members to 
God. There should be no reserve, no locked 
cupboards, no closed doors, no vault barri- 
caded from sun and air by a great slab of 
stone. Open every door and window of 
your being to the Holy Spirit, and He will 
certainly come in, though you may not be 
aware of the moment or method of His en- 
trance. 

4. — Give time to pray erf id meditation on the 
word of God, There is no such way of com- 
muning with God as to walk to and fro in 
your own room or in the open air, your 
Bible in hand, meditating on it and turn- 
ing its precepts and promises into prayer. 
God walks in the glades of Scripture, as of 
old in those of Paradise. 

5. — Then hy faith reverently and humbly take 
the Father'' s gift through Jesus Christ, Let it 
be a definite transaction. Ask for the fill- 
ing of the Spirit, after the measure of Pen- 
tecost. Dip j^our bucket deep down into 
the brimming well and bring it back drip- 
ping with crystal drops. Eeckon that God 
has answered your prayer and has granted 
the petition you made. Meet every sug- 
gestion of doubt by the decisive answer 
that God is faithful and must do as He has 



316 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LITE. 

said. But specially dare to act faith, going 
to the temptation in the desert or the min- 
istry among men assured that you have re- 
ceived all the equipment that you could 
possibly require. 

Whenever you are conscious of leakage ; 
when the exhaustion of service has been 
greater than the reception of fresh supplies; 
when some new avenue of ministry, or 
freshly discovered talent, or new depart- 
ment of your being, has presented itself, go 
again to the same source for a refilling, a 
recharging with spiritual power, a reanoint- 
ing by the holy chrism. 

Three tenses are used in the Acts of the 
Apostles of the filling of the Spirit, which 
have their counterparts still : — 

Filled: a sudden decisive experience for 
a specific work (Acts iv. 8) . 

Were being filled: the imperfect tense, as 
though the blessed process were always go- 
ing on (Acts xiii. 52) . 

Full: the adjective, indicating the per- 
petual experience (Acts vi. 8). 



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